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INTERNATIONAL COLLECTIVE IN SUPPORT OF FISHWORKERS

ANdENT EGYPTiAN FisHERiESOysTER fisJ..lERS iN FRANCE

FilipiNO IlAYW'ldiORGANiziNG fisJ.iERS iN BRAZil

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ContentsSAMUDR.... No 28 APRIL 2001 TRlAN:>''UAL REPOKT Of ICSF

0 COMMENT 1

0 EGYPTGift of the Nile 3

0 FRANCEFemme de In Cote 8

0 PHILIPPINESBetween meal and market 13

0 BRAZILFaceless no more 19

0 NFTHERLAI\'USEnough is enough~ 24

0 RUSSIAPoking the bubble 29

0 RESPONSEWag the dog 31

0 FRANCEEconomic ecology 37

0 ARCENTINABack to school 41

0 NOTICEwilma ligget" 'Ii 43

0 WEBSITEBeyond bare bones 44

0 JAPANPenny saved, penny earned 47

0 NEWS ROUND-UPChile, Canada, PakistanMozambique, India 50

Comment

Say yes to good subsidiesAccording to Encyclopaedia Britannica, a subsidy is a direct or indirect payment,economic concession, or privilege granted by a government to private firms,households or other governmental units in order to promote a public objective.

In the fisheries sector, depending on the ’public objective’, subsidies would includegrants, loans and loan guarantees to invest in fishing units; foregone governmentrevenue in the form of tax rebates on fuel, and rebate on import duties on inputs likeoutboard motors, goods and services, other than general infrastructure, like fish-land-ing centres and fishing harbours. Export subsidies specific to the fisheries sector alsoexist.

In the post-colonial phase of history, many coastal developing countries have beenusing subsidies as a financial instrument to develop their fisheries in order to promoteemployment, income and food security, as well as to enhance foreign exchangeearnings from seafood exports. These subsidy programmes received a further boostin the post-UNCLOS era, when coastal States acquired jurisdiction over living andnon-living resources up to 200 nautical miles from their seaboard.

Until the early 1980s, subsidies went mainly to relatively larger vessels that wereinvolved in capture fisheries for the export market. Since then, subsidies have beenchiefly earmarked for the small-scale artisanal fisheries sub-sectors, mainly to offsetthe negative impact of large-scale bottom trawling on coastal, artisanal, small-scalefishers. The total subsidies granted to the fisheries sector in developing countries,including those for the artisanal, small-scale as well as the large-scale, industrialsectors, are, however, lower in magnitude than those prevailing in OECD countries. Inthe case of Sri Lanka, India and Senegal, for example, subsidies to the harvest sector,excluding harbours and fish-landing centres, would amount to 1.5 to 3 per cent of thetotal landed value of fish. This is significantly lower than the 17 per cent of the landedvalue of marine capture fisheries products, reported as the subsidy level in the OECDcountries.

Clearly, therefore, the overcapacity and overfishing in the fisheries of several develop-ing countries cannot be attributed to subsidies; these occur despite lower subsidies.Rather, they are mainly related to open-access regimes and an indiscriminate responseto market signals.

Some people argue that there are no ’good’ subsidies. We disagree. There are ’good’subsidies and ’bad’ subsidies. Good subsidies are those that can bring about bettercontrol over the input of fishing effort and the output of fish; encourage participatorymanagement regimes; introduce equitable property rights (which sufficiently recognizethe characteristics of artisanal, small-scale fisheries); lead to effective monitoring,control and surveillance systems; relocate fishers from overcrowded inshore waters tolabour-scarce fisheries or non-fishing activities; contribute to protecting fish habitats;and help build up an information base.

Subsidies, needless to add, are one among several means to an end, not an end initself. If equity and sustainability could become the ’public objective’, then transparent,well-targeted and suitably designed subsidies could be an effective tool to achievethese goals.

COMMENT

SAMUDRA APRIL 2001 1

Fisheries history

Gift of the Nile

The fisheries of Egypt, whose source is the River Nile, have always played a significant role, both in ancient and present times

The Greek philosopher, Herodotus(485-426) said, “Egypt is the Gift ofthe Nile”. How true he was.

Several historians of ancient Egypt haveconcluded that fisheries were of majorimportance and that fish waspredominantly present in the diet ofEgyptians. The conclusion is built on theassumption that cattle and pasture landwere scarce, while water bodies wereabundant. The physical environment ofEgypt, therefore, undoubtedlycontributed to the development of anefficient fishing industry.

The River Nile, the father of African rivers,the longest river in the world (6,650 km)and the most important natural feature ofEgypt, is the source of both its productivefisheries and agriculture fertility. Theearly Egyptians called the river ’Ar’ or’Aur’, meaning ’black’, alluding to thecolour of the sediments carried by theriver when it is in spate. In addition to theNile basin, Egypt is blessed with severalNile tributaries, lagoon inlets and naturallakes, apart from being bordered by twomajor seas—the Mediterranean in thenorth, and the Red Sea in the east.Present-day Egypt has added a majorman-made reservoir, Lake Nasser, inUpper Egypt.

Throughout Egyptian history, the fish ofthe Nile was an important part of theEgyptian diet. Perhaps it was not alwaysprized by the upper class, but fish used tobe served as a means of payment, rewardand national revenue. At the same time,the connection of fish with the cyclicallife-giving forces of the Nile became animage in the Egyptian conception of theworld.

In spite of the obvious differencesbetween the ancient and modern eras, the

River Nile is the most important linkbetween the two civilizations, and fishcontinues to be a major component inEgyptian diets, accounting for almost 20per cent of the national consumption ofanimal protein.

The history of fishing in ancient Egyptbegan before 4000 BC, before the variousdynasties. The ancient Egyptians wholived along the shores of the Nile and thevarious water bodies, mostly in the deltaarea, used fish in their diet. They alsoinvented various implements for fishing,and established different procedures tocatch the fish. These implements, toolsand fishing practices have been conveyedvery plainly in tomb scenes, drawings,engravings, papyrus documents, skeletalremains, etc. These remains serve as themain sources of information of Egypt’sprehistoric period and attest to theimportance of fish as a means ofsubsistence.

Archaeological investigations of Egypt’sancient economy have demonstrated thatEgyptians were well acquainted with theirenvironment, and made good use of theanimals of the Nile Valley and desert forsubsistence, as well as for raw materials toconstruct tools. Furthermore, ancientEgyptians were known to be keenobservers of nature. This is reflected in theprecise depiction of the manycharacteristics needed to identify Nilefish. It is also reflected in the symbolic ormarginal powers attributed to certain fishby virtue of their observed biologicalbehavior.

Fish honouredFor example, mullets, having travelledfrom the Mediterranean Sea to the firstcataract (Upper Egypt), were honoured atElephantine as heralds of the flood god,Hapi, who was the most important among

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numerous personifications of aspects ofnatural fertility.

The mouth-brooding habits ofcertain species of the genus Tilapiawere also observed and associated

with creation by the creator god, Atum,who is believed to have taken his seed intohis mouth and spat out the world. It is alsobelieved that the Egyptians may havebeen able to distinguish the habits ofTilapia zilli, a nest brooder, from theTilapia. The Nile catfish, Clarious spp.,because it favours muddy waters, wasbelieved to guide the solar boat throughthe dark river of the underworld at night.Catfish-headed demons are depicted inNew Kingdom royal tombs andnumerous sarcophagi. According toclassical sources, the catfish became holymanifestations of the cat-headed goddess,Bastet.

The Nile catfish prefers deoxygenated,shallow, swampy environments. Thelarge quantity of remains of this speciessuggests that Fayum inhabitants heavilyutilized these shallow water-resourceareas surrounding the prehistoric LakeQarun at Fayum. The Nile catfish is arelatively large fish, which can beeffectively collected by spearing, nettingor by hand, as a number of ethnographicreports describe. Lates niloticus, on theother hand, which need well-oxygenatedwaters, would be collected mosteffectively by netting or angling in the

open, deeper waters of Lake Qarun or themid-channel areas of the Nile.

Fishing, being mostly a seasonal activity,led to a strategy of mobile settlementpatterns whereby population orsettlement shifts occurred in order to takeadvantage of resources, as they becameabundant.

The annual Nile flood also played a majorrole in ancient Egypt. In mid-July, thebeginning of the flood could be detectedat Aswan (Upper Egypt). The Nile wouldideally rise and crest in southern Egypt bymid-August. The flood waters wouldreach the last basins at the northernmostend of the Valley four to six weeks later.In shallow floodwaters, the fish leftstranded as the Nile receded wereassociated with fertility, abundance andeternal life.

Egyptian fishing technology reached apoint where fishermen could selectivelyfish for particular species. From thedepictions of fish in tomb scenes,approximately 23 different forms of fishhave been identified. These do not,however, represent all the fish that inhabitthe Nile.

Preserved fishAlthough fresh, unprocessed fish wassold in the market, large quantities weredressed and preserved. The fish weresometimes cleaned as soon as they were

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4 SAMUDRA APRIL 2001

dressed in different ways. As the tombscenes indicate, the fish was grasped bythe tail and laid, belly down, on a block oron a flat-sloped dressing board. It wasthen cut with a broad splitting knife, usingdownward strokes along the vertebralcolumn, after which the viscera wasremoved.

The fish was then laid flat or hung todry, the head and vertebral columnoften left intact. The most frequent

fish scene was of mullet, which, besidesbeing highly prized for its flavour, alsocontained roe. The roe, which wasconsidered a delicacy, could be eaten freshor dried.

Some fish served as nourishment for themarsh workers. Dried fish hanging next totools in the temporary shelters of themarsh dwellers were, undoubtedly, forimmediate consumption. Anothersegment of the catch was used aspayment. Scribes recorded that fish and aportion of the catch were distributed tovarious officials. The fish remaining in thepossession of the fishermen could then bebartered for other commodities in themarket. Fish could be traded for a loaf ofbread, one fresh mullet for a jar of beer,and an entire basket of dried Mugils forone amulet. Clearly, on the basis of thetomb scenes, fish was a cheap source ofprotein, and documents confirm this.Some historical reports point out that fishfrom Egypt reached Syria.

Present-day Egyptian fishing industrymay be divided into three main sectors:marine, inland and aquaculture.According to the latest official fisheriesstatistics for 1999, issued by the GeneralEgyptian Authority for AquaticResources, the Mediterranean and RedSeas provide Egypt with a coastline ofabout 2,420 km and a shelf area of 87,120sq km. They account for about 27 per cent(172,343 tonnes) of the 1999 total fishproduction of 648,937 tonnes. A widevariety of fishing vessels and gear are inuse. The registered fishing fleet consists of3,258 powered vessels and 36,376 boatspropelled by sail. The majority ofmotorized boats operating in marinefisheries are equipped with 30-800 hpengines. Boats equipped with smallengines use hand-lines and trawl nets. Themarine fleet is composed of 1,235 trawlers

and 369 purse-seiners, 915 line-fishingboats and 739 boats using other fishinggear, operating in the Mediterranean Sea.Non-motorized boats operate mainly ininland fisheries. Purse-seining is generallyconducted at night, with light-attractiontechniques. Nets are typically 200-300 mlong and 50 m deep. The purse-seinersusually have 20-30 crew members. Morethan 60 per cent of the Mediterranean fishis landed at Dameitta, Port Said andAlexandria. Most landings comprise 30fish and prawn species. Sardines accountfor the bulk of the catch (about 20 percent), while mullet makes up 9 per cent,and shrimp and crabs, 11 per cent.

The Red Sea fishing grounds can bedivided into two main sectors: the Gulf ofSuez, a shallow gulf not more than 100 mdeep, with a nearby flat bottom, and theRed Sea coast, which extends from thesouthern part of the Gulf of Suez to theEgyptian/Sudanese border. Landingsfrom the Red Sea and the Gulf of Suezcoast in 1999 reached 82,400 tonnes. Morethan 50 per cent of the catch is landed at ElAttaka in the Gulf of Suez. Red Sealandings comprise more than 30commercial fish species. Shrimp, crab,lizardfish, bogue, snapper, sardine, andred mullet constitute the main specieslanded.

Egypt’s largest lake is Lake Nasser inUpper Egypt, which covers an area of6,216 sq m. In 1999, 41,304 tonnes of fishwere landed from this man-made lake.There are several littoral lagoons in theDelta area. The largest of these lagoons isLake Manzala. Their total surface area isabout 200,100 hectares. There are also twocoastal depressions at Bardawil and PortFoad, as well as inland lakes, the RiverNile and its tributaries. In 1999, all thesewater bodies together produced a total of250,319 tonnes, or 39 per cent of the totallandings. The main species landedcomprise Tilapia (Bolti) and carp species.

Old activityFish culture is an old activity in Egypt. Thefirst record of this was pictured on thewalls of the tombs of Thebiane in 2000 BC.However, with an extensive waterresource base, and a relatively lowpopulation density until the earlytwentieth century, no real interest existedin the culture of fish. Capture fisheries

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provided the population with adequatefish. With the increase of the population inthe last 50 years or so (Egypt’s 1998population was 65 million, with an annualincrease estimated at 2.3 per cent), and theresulting increase in pressure on naturalresources, fish farming has received moreand more attention in recent years.

Aquaculture has increasedconsiderably. In 1999, productionfrom all farms and systems

totalled 226,275 tones or 35 per cent of totalproduction. This included fish fromregular fish farm ponds, as well as fromrice fields. Tilapia, carp and mullet are themain species produced. However, catfish,sea bream and shrimp are produced inlesser quantities. The government is themain supplier of stocking material forfreshwater ponds. Marine fish farmingdepends on the wild fry collected anddistributed by the government.

Recent estimates of the maximumsustainable yield (MSY) for marine andinland fisheries are not available.However, it is generally recognized thatmost marine and inland fisheriesresources are fully exploited, and requirea reduction in fishing effort, as well asother management measures to ensuresustainable production. In addition, thewater quality of most inland fisheries isadversely affected by agriculturedrainage, industrial effluent and sewage.There is inadequate mixing of fresh and

salt water in the coastal lakes and in LakeQarun.

Water supply for aquaculture is generallypolluted, since only agricultural drainagewater may be used. Furthermore, land isleased for a short period of time, whichprevents long-term planning forsustainable aquaculture.

Although some fishermen and fishfarmers sell directly to the public, it islikely that most fish are bought and soldseveral times before reaching the finalconsumers. Fish is sold to private buyersat prices set by a local committee, by directnegotiations between buyers and sellers,or by auctions. Intermediaries mayadvance funds to producers, who areusually required to pay back such loans bydeducting from the value of productsdelivered to the intermediaries.Marketing margins or commissions aregenerally not extensive.

Private sectorBuying and selling of fish is largely carriedout by the private sector, operating in afree market, where prices reflect supplyand demand. There are some exceptions,however. In some areas, prices are setunder government control, in an attemptto bring fish to low-income consumers. Asa result, some distortions occur.Poor-quality fish may result from little orno ice being used. Market forces, and notrules, regulations and fixed prices, tend to

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be the determining factor, as far as qualityis concerned.

Fish consumption in Egypt ischaracterized by a longstandingtraditional preference for fresh fish,

with a per capita consumption of about13.24 kg/year. However, with increasingfish imports and developments in coldstorage, frozen fish is becomingacceptable. In addition, fish consumed inareas far away from landing sites is salted,as in some sardine and mullet caught fromthe Mediterranean and Red Seas.Processing facilities include units offreezing, canning and smoking fish. In1999, Egypt imported about 193,000tonnes, valued at Egyptian Pounds 334million (US$88 million), mostly oflow-value fish, to supplement localsupplies, while exporting only about 692tonnes, valued at Egyptian Pounds 4.1million (US$1.08 million) of high-valuefish.

To develop the fisheries sector inpresent-day Egypt, attention must be paidto the development of its natural fishresources through better conservationand management of marine andfresh-water resources. This can beachieved through the carefulimplementation of the FAO Code ofConduct for Responsible Fisheries, towhich Egypt is a signatory. Also, there isa need for more fisheries research andup-to-date surveys of the resources.Promotion of mariculture and fishing jointventure agreements with neighboringcountries would help Egypt increase itslocal supplies of fish and, hence, reduce itsdependence on imports.

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This article is by fisheriesdevelopment consultant, Izzat Feidi([email protected]), formerChief, Fish Utilization and MarketingService, Fisheries Industry Division,FAO, Rome


Oyster fishery

Femme de la Côte

This is the story of a woman of the isle of Oleron, in the southwest of France, who has reared oysters for more than 60 years

Like most other oyster fishers fromthe bay of Marennes-Oleron, thefirst bay in Europe for oyster

production, Jeanne belongs to one of thosedeep-rooted coastal families, who havecultivated salt ponds, the land betweenthe ponds and small vineyards, for manycenturies. As far back as the 17thcentury—Jeanne’s genealogy has not beentraced farther—her ancestors werealready living in the same places as shedoes today, within a triangle of about 3 sqmiles—her whole universe.

Until the turn of the 20th century, Jeanne’sancestors kept working the soil belongingto richer landowners. After the FrenchRevolution, they managed to buy smallplots of land and vineyards. But onlywhen artisanal salt production becamethreatened by a more industrializedproduction elsewhere were they able tobuy the salt ponds they had cultivatedfrom their former landowners. It was alsoonly after the phylloxera crisis in the1880-90 period that they could buy thevineyards at depressed prices and replantthem.

Thus, on the eve of the First World War,Jeanne’s father had become one of themost powerful landowners andcultivators of his village. But the war wasgoing to change his world forever. Whenhe returned home injured, he still carriedon producing salt and wine for a while,but progressively turned to what hadbecome the only primary activityeconomically viable: oyster production.

The European coast had been coveredwith oyster beds for ages. In thebeginning, there was just a sole bed fromDenmark down to Portugal. In the bay ofMarennes-Oleron, people had been eatingflat oysters since antiquity. When theRomans invaded the area in the 1st

century after Christ, they brought withthem refinement techniques, and startedexporting oysters back home. In the 12thcentury, according to some historicdocuments, some kinds of constructionsalready existed, where oysters were let togrow. As centuries passed, oysters startedto be consumed farther away from thecoast, in the larger regional cities and inParis.

The special characteristic of theMarennes-Oleron oyster is that it can turngreen, thanks to an algae, the bluenavicula. Mention of the green oyster canbe found in historic documents as old asthe 17th century, but the process might bemuch older. This green oyster was firstproduced on the left side of the Seudreriver by salt producers. When working attheir ponds, they had noticed that theoyster became green naturally. These poorpeople had the habit of going fishing atlow tide to feed themselves. They used topick the oysters stuck on the rocks, usinga kind of hammer.

As they would spend a whole day out attheir ponds before returning home, theyalso had the habit of stocking their oystersin a pond before eating them. This mightbe how they discovered that they couldnaturally turn green, in the process alsobecoming finer and tastier. Thus, theystarted growing the oysters in ponds, andbegan digging new ponds to grow moreoysters. For them, this new resource was away to get away from their dependenceon the salt ponds owners who, most of thetime, lived away in large cities and wereonly interested in speculating on saltprices.

New oyster pondsIn the 18th century, the development ofthousands of new oyster ponds broughtabout a conflict between the different

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social categories. The salt producers weresummoned to destroy their ponds, butnever did. On the contrary, a century anda half later, as salt prices sank, most saltponds were turned into oyster ponds.

Until the midst of the 19th century,the oyster industry remainedmore or less the same in the bay of

Marennes-Oleron: poor local familieswould invade the coast at low tide to pickyoung oysters on the rocks and sell themto salt producers.

Some fishermen would also keepdredging the beds, but most of the bedshad been depleted by overfishing sincethe 18th century, forcing the governmentto forbid fishing during the reproductivemonths each year. They would also selltheir fishing products to the salt producersalong both sides of the Seudre, who wouldlet them grow in their ponds for three tofive years.

At the beginning of the 19th century, thefishermen of the bay, who used to stocktheir unsold production on the upper sideof the coast, found that they could growoysters on this upper part of the beach,called estran. This was a time-savingrevolution. Oysters could become fat andmature without spending several years inponds. From then on, the fishermen beganleaving them for only about six months inponds, sometimes even less, just longenough for them to turn green.

The major revolution, however, appearedin the 1850s, when, for different reasons,Emperor Napoleon III decided tomodernize the industry. He first sent ascientist, Victor Coste, to Italy, where theFrench had maintained spat settlementtechniques since antiquity. Moreparticularly, they used to put woodenbundles into the water for the little oysterlarvae to settle on them. On Coste’s returnfrom Italy, the Emperor launched anational natural bed replenishmentprogramme on the basis of thesetechniques and others. As a matter of fact,the French had already started buildingtheir own tools to collect spat in Brittany.The Emperor also introduced a form ofprivate property (the 1852 decree) to boostthe industry. Each person who asked for itcould obtain the lease of a public ground.

The beginings were, of course, chaotic.After the first successes appeared the firstfailures. Coste died a doomed man. Butshortly afterwards, the pioneers whoremained in the industry, triumphed. Thefirst to succeed were the fishermen fromthe Arcachon Bay, south of the Girondeestuary. They succeeded so well that in the1880s already appeared what was tobecome the first national crisis of theoyster industry.

Good salesThe oysters were selling so well that eachlittle bit of space that could be leased togrow oysters was given out.

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Furthermore, the quality of the grounds inthat bay has always favoured spatproduction over oyster rearing. Therefore,some Arcachon fishermen started leasingoyster grounds in the Isle of Oleron togrow their oysters.

Other people, particularly someindustrialists from other Frenchareas, had also started their

company on the island. But, until the1920s, most of the spat was not producedin the bay of Marennes-Oleron. The saltproducers of the Seudre had beenreluctant to change their way of life. Theywould keep buying young oysters fromBrittany or Arcachon or even from themouth of the Charente river and growthem in their ponds. Due to theirinsulation from the continent, mostOleron oystermen would also rely on theSeudre sellers to sell their production.These sellers from La Tremblade (the maincity on the left bank of the Seudre)controlled the market in the big cities andmade a lot of money with what wasknown as the Marennes.

In Arcachon, however, the success of thetrade led to too many people entering it.Soon the oyster sellers (expéditeurs) of LaTremblade could only refine a limitedquantity of oysters in their ponds. Asprices went down, the producers tendedto put more oysters on their grounds tocompensate for the loss of benefits. As thathappened, the quality of the oysters

deteriorated. The crisis, which had firststarted in Arcachon, eventually reachedthe bay of Marennes-Oleron. For 40 years,it went through ups and downs until theindigenous flat oyster eventually diedfrom an epidemic in 1920-22. It was notuntil 1915 and 1919 that the law wasmodified to make the industry adapt tothe changing circumstances.

Jeanne’s father had started growingoysters in 1919. His account bookremained empty until 1922. He hadprobably planted flat oysters that died. In1922, he started planting oysters again.This time, it was the Portuguese oyster(Crassostrea angulata).

As the story goes, this species wasaccidentally introduced into France in1867, by a boat returning from Portugalwith a full cargo of oysters for anArcachon producer. (In times of shortage,French oystermen have always importedoysters from Spain or Portugal to fill theirmarkets.) The boat missed the entrance ofthe bay. The captain, who took refuge inthe Gironde estuary, would later havedropped his cargo overboard, eitherbecause the oysters were thought to bedead or because he wanted to go home.

Oyster invasionThe oysters, however, were not dead, and,in a few year’s time, they invaded the coastup to the Loire river. Thus, when the flatoyster disappeared, the cupped

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Portuguese oyster, which had beendenigrated until then, was adopted by theoyster sellers of the Seudre river.

Jeanne’s father developed his businessin the 1920s. He turned former saltponds into claires (the ponds where

oysters are left to acquire a finer taste andturn green), built himself a shack, andleased new grounds. For a decade, theSeudre oyster sellers who were not verynumerous, made good profits. With thedownturn in the market, around 1930, asa consequence of the international crisisand the development of the oysterindustry in the bay of Marennes-Oleronand elsewhere, his first son started sellinghis production andthat of others.

That was also whenJeanne started learningthe trade. Leavingschool when she was13, she started learningsewing, before joiningher parents in theoyster industry. Shefirst learnt sailing andthe male aspects of thetrade with her father,then the female aspectswith her mother. Inthis way, she wouldlater be able to teachoystering to herhusband, who hadbeen trained as acarpenter.

Jeanne married Charles in 1938. Less thana year later, Charles was called to war. Hewas injured at the Front and came homein July 1940. During the GermanOccupation, Jeanne and Charles carriedon working with her parents, whilestarting to ’buy’ their first grounds. Withthe development of the industry,competition for space had increased. Sohad the value of the rent.

Jeanne and Charles could only truly starttheir activity after the war. For a decade,they re-invested most of their earningsinto new grounds. ’What are we going tothrow at the sea this year?’ Jeanne wouldask her husband each year. Up to 1958,they built a nice ’property’ and made goodmoney. In the industry, this period is

known as the Eldorado, especially for theoyster growers of the isle of Oleron. Asdemand kept growing, they startedoverexploiting their grounds. Ironically,as the quality of their oysters decreased,the prices kept on rising.

The oysters, however, could not survivethe production boost. In 1966, and then in1970, it was successively struck by twodiseases, the second one being fatal.Fortunately, some oyster growers hadclandestinely introduced the Japaneseoyster (Crassostrea gigas) in 1966, whichheroically survived.

Meanwhile, for Jeanne and Charles, the1960s were decidedly abad time. She firstsuffered fromtuberculosis for threeyears, and then Charleswas struck by a tumourthat forced him to stopworking.

Michel, their son, cameto the rescue, with hisyoung wife and babydaughter. They enteredthe industry the year ofthe epidemic.

Michel paved pathswith the empty shellsand replanted thegrounds with gigasimported from Japan

or Vancouver Island. The first oystersgrew to maturity in 18 months and theoystermen started hoping again.

In two years, the industry was back tonormal. But then other problemsemerged. The government had beenencouraging national production since1977. Marennes-Oleron was nowenduring the competition of new, andmore modern, production sites, likeNormandy and Brittany, which couldproduce faster and cheaper.

SupermarketsAt the start of the 1970s, the market hadalso turned into the hands ofsupermarkets, which tended to takeadvantage of thousands of small,unorganized oyster producers. The oystergrowers of the isle of Oleron were among

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In the industry, this period is known

as the Eldorado, especially for the

oyster growers of the isle of Oleron.

As demand kept growing, they

started overexploiting their grounds.

Ironically, as the quality of their

oysters decreased, the prices kept on

rising.


those who suffered most from the newcircumstances.

Most oyster growers startedselling their own productsdirectly, to avoid

intermediaries. But this was a short-termsolution. Out of 7,000 ground leasers in the1960s, only about 1,200 remain today.And, out of every four leaving theindustry, only one enters. Though theindustry does not produce less of oysters,employment around the bay has beendisappearing. The oyster industry isfollowing the same pattern as agriculture:the crisis had led to a concentration ofbigger businesses using more technologyand equipment, and less manpower. Thequestion raised now is of the future of thebay, in terms of employment and theenvironment.

Jeanne’s son and wife, Michel and Colette,will soon leave the industry...

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This piece, by Catherine SimonGoulletquer ([email protected]),is excerpted from Femme de laCôte, Geste Editions, La Crèche,France, pp. 240, price: 98 FF


Resource management

Between meal and market

Some initial experiences with community-based resource management in Danao Bay in the Philippines revolve around the humble sea cucumber

Balas Diyut (Small Beach), 30 October 2000:

Today, at 6 o’clock in the morning, itis low tide. There are a lot of peoplegleaning the small inter-tidal zone

in front of the community. More than 40backs are bent over the transparent,one-foot deep water. Oscar, myneighbour, has gathered around twokilo’s of shells. In half of them, the originalinhabitant, a snail, has been replaced by ahermit crab. Using a stone, Oscar breaksthe shells and takes out the little hermit.“For my son,” he says. “He will use themas bait to catch fish with his handlinewhen the tide comes in.” The other shellshe takes home for breakfast, which will becomplete with the eggs of a few seaurchins.

A little farther, Ibi carefully moves thesargassum weed aside, searching for thebugalbog, a very shy and perfectlycamouflaged parrotfish. With her slowmovements and small spear in one hand,she reminds me of a gracious heron. Herskills have made Ibi known as one of thebest bugalbog fishers in the village.

Just as I decide not to disturb her, the littlespear goes tsjak! and a bugalbog of around300 gm flounders at the tip of the metalspoke that serves as a spear. The fish joinsthree others in Ibi’s plastic bucket where,to my surprise, a large needlefish sticksout too. “I found it in between the weed.It has a wound at its belly probably fromanother fish. It is still fresh so I will take ithome for breakfast,” Ibi tells me.

Not everybody is as lucky. After twohours gleaning the reef, Lourdes, anexperienced reef gleaner, returns homewith only 15 small shells, one tinybutterflyfish, two anemones and three seacucumbers. “Those people from otherplaces come gathering sea urchins here,”

she complains, “picking them even whenthey’re not bigger than a ping-pong ball.We gather only those that are at least asbig as my fist.”

In this case, there was only merecomplaining. A few months ago,however, people were throwing stones.The sea cucumber had become the symbolof mismanagement and conflict betweenmeal and market.

Before 1984, sea cucumbers were veryabundant on the reef. “You had to watchout not to slide over them,” locals warned.Several species were gathered as food anda few sold in the municipal market. Peoplehad the habit of bringing cooked rice,bananas or root crops to the beach, to eattogether with these fruits of the sea.

In 1984, fishers all the way from Malaysiaand the Sulu Archipelago arrived in thearea and harvested the sea cucumbers bythe boatload, for the export market inHong Kong. The local fishers complained,and the municipal mayor prohibited thegathering of sea cucumbers by outsiders.The traders, however, remained, and thelocal fishers took over the job of gatheringthe sea cucumbers and supplying thetraders with beche-de-mer (dried seacucumbers).

Business stoppedAfter one-and-a-half years, most of thetraders left, for lack of business. By thattime, they were being offered 10 times theinitial price but still, fishers could notdeliver. Two local buyers continuedbuying beche-de-mer as a secondary sourceof income. In 1995, the mayor issued anorder banning the gathering of seacucumbers. As a result, one of the buyersstopped his business, but the other, a closefamily friend of the local executive,continued. Also, the local gatherers acted

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as if no ban existed. They continuedgathering the sea cucumbers, both forconsumption and for export. Given thiscontinued exploitation, there seemed to belittle hope for a recovery of the seacucumber population.

In 1991, at the request of some churchleaders, the Pipuli Foundation, a localNGO, started a programme to establish asanctuary or no-take zone and therehabilitation of mangroves.

The established sanctuary area coveredmangrove, sea grass and coral reef, andoccupied 6 per cent of the total inter-tidalarea in the bay.

The Foundation started to assist fishersand shell gleaners to unite aroundresource management, drawing on thepositive and negative experiences ofsanctuary establishment and

community-based resource managementinitiatives in other parts of the Philippines.

In early April 1998, it was again a seacucumber that took centre stage in thebattle over limited resources in DanaoBay. This time, the conflict was about thesandfish (Holothuria scabra), a gray,valuable sea cucumber. It was a monthbefore the national and local electionswhen reports reached the office of the NGOfrom the organized community membersthat some fishers from Tugas village in themunicipality of Baliangao were landingsacks full of sea cucumbers.Undoubtedly, these large quantities of bigsea cucumbers could only have beenpoached from the last refuge of the seacucumber in Danao Bay-the sanctuary.

Alarm signalsAlarmed by these reports, the sanctuaryguards sharpened their watchful eyes

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Baywatch

Danao Bay is located in the province ofMisamis Occidental on the island of Min-danao, and encompasses an area of

2000 hectares. A large part of the bay belongsto the municipal waters of Baliangao town, butthe eastern side belongs to Plaridel.

Danao Bay is shallow, with a large inter-tidalzone. About 54 per cent of the bay iscomposed of mangroves, mudflats, reefs andsea-grass beds, and is considered among themost productive ecosystems in the world.

Seven hundred households make up the sixcoastal villages and are estimated to have apopulation of 3,500. Of them, almost 1,000 areengaged in fisheries (pre-fishing, capture,processing or selling activities). The mainresources exploited are fish (by around 550persons), shells (450), sea urchins (100) andseveral crab species (90). Though shellgathering is mainly done by women, 30 percent of the reef gleaners are male. Fish captureis mainly done by men, but 85 women aredirectly engaged in fish capture. Four out of 10resource users report that they are fullydependent on fisheries for their livelihood. Theother resource users combine fisheries withfarming, carpentry, small businesses and farmlabour.

The population comprises mostly settlers andtheir descendants. These settlers arrived here

in the early years of the 20th century, and themajority came from the (neighbouring) islandsof Bohol, Cebu and Siquijor. The population ofthe Danao Bay, therefore, can be consideredas a society of second- and third-generationimmigrants. There are also descendents ofSpanish and Chinese settlers, who are todaythe main political and economic actors in thearea.

Neither Baliangao nor Plaridel has any largeindustry. Plaridel municipality, nevertheless, ismore integrated into the national economybecause of an existing port, which is visitedthrice a week by ships from Cebu, Siquijor andBohol. The highway connecting the cities ofDipolog, Pagadian and Cagayan de Oro alsoruns through this municipality, giving it adistinct advantage in trade.

Both municipalities—especiallyBaliangao—have a rural economy and areprimarily dependent on (coconut) farming andfisheries. There is no sharp demarcationbetween those engaged in fisheries andagriculture. Both augment their incomes eitherfrom fisheries or agricultural labour. Theagriculture of the area is still dominated byfeudal relationships.

Most of the (coconut) land is owned by largelandowners, who employ tenants on their landsunder a sharing system, where the landowner


and, after only a few nights of closepatrolling, they found themselves facing19 poachers inside the sanctuary,harvesting sacks of sea cucumbers.

The poachers had eluded the guardsthe nights before, because theyworked without lamps—the sea

cucumbers were quite visible bymoonlight. One man, who appeared to bethe leader of the poachers, threatened theguards with his bolo (long knife), askingthem why they so wanted to play the hero.Luckily, cooler heads prevailed.

The trespassers, who were all from onesmall community, were not arrested, buttheir names were handed over to the localbarangay captain. The next day, hesummoned the poachers to his office, butthey did not show up, probably confidentof the protection they enjoyed from one ofthe influential local politicians.

For the leaders of the fisher organizations,the threat of the sanctuary and the seacucumber becoming a political issue wasevident, and they decided to send adelegation for a dialogue with thispolitician. The four representatives, allwomen, were confronted by the politician,who reasoned that he was only helping hispeople to survive the drought caused bythe El Niño. “Would you continue tosupport them even if they broke the law?”one of the women shot back. The man fellsilent. There was nothing more to be said.He just sat back in his chair, apparentlysurprised by the fierce reaction. For thewomen, it was a point, boldly made andwon.

Poachers summonedThe next day, the barangay captain againsummoned the poachers to his office. Thistime, a hearing was held with the guards,leaders and staff of the community-based

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gets two shares of the harvest, while the tenantgets only one, and also has to shoulder thecosts of production.

Fish caught in Danao Bay is sold to local fishbuyers, who sell to fish markets in theneighbouring town of Calamba. Commercialspecies (big mangrove crabs and groupers) aresold to Manila, while sea cucumbers are sold toZamboanga for the international market (HongKong).

Baliangao is known for its beautiful beaches.The present administration is exerting a lot ofeffort to improve Baliangao’s image as themost peaceful and hospitable municipality inthe province. Its potential as a touristdestination has not yet been fully exploited.The absence of a good water system is a majorstumbling block for tourism development.

The 1000 resource users (or one person perhectare of the inter-tidal zone) heavily exploitthe resources of Danao Bay. Most of themconcentrate on the inshore area, where 82 fishcorrals have been set up; 70 trammel netfishers beat the fish into their nets, 80 gill-netfishers set their nets, 30 night-time speargunfishers operate, 60 fishers use hook-and-line,and 450 persons glean the reef for an averageof 10 days/nights a month.

Fishing on the seaside of the reef crest isseasonal. Amihan (or the northeasternmonsoon) brings gusty winds and strong waves

that make fishing in the open sea outside theprotection of the reef too dangerous for small,non-motorized boats. From December to April,even the 54 fishers who own boats with smallinboard 4-16 hp engines have to fish behindthe protection of the reef crest.

The destruction of the mangroves, the heavydamage wrought on the reef by the use ofexplosives and the increase in fishing pressurebrought about by a growing fisher populationand the use of more efficient technologies havecontributed to the steady decrease in catches.Through community workshops, involvingfishers of different ages, the recent history ofDanao Bay was reconstructed. The catch perunit effort (CPUE) for fish corrals and trammelnets has decreased significantly and ispresently less then one-third of the CPUE in the1980s.

Fish species caught in Danao Bay, like therabbit fish (Siganidae—around 35 per cent ofthe catch), parrot fish (Scaridae), squid, bleucrabs and goatfishe (Mullidae), command ahigh price in the market. This has somewhatoffset the effect of the decline in catches on theincome of the fishers, but income levels havedefinitely dropped in the last 10 years.

In 1998, fish corral owners earned an averageof 45 pesos per day—far too little to pay for thebasic needs of a family of four. Fish corralowners are really forced to augment theirincome with other activities.


coastal resource management (CBCRM)programme. Confronted with thetestimonies of the guards, the poachersadmitted their offence and signed astatement saying that a second violationwould land them behind bars.

Meanwhile, a lot of lobby workwas done by the NGO staff andthe fisher leaders to explain the

merits of the sanctuary and other resourcemanagement regulations. The incidenthad shown the fisher leaders that solvingconflicts over resource use can not be leftto politicians, and that they themselveswill have to play a major role. Seacucumber poaching in the sanctuarystopped totally a week after the newlyelected mayor took office.

It was clear that there was an attitudinalchange within the community since theCBCRM programme started. Based on thenumber of sacks of dried sandfishtransported to Zamboanga City by the seacucumber dealer, it was estimated that thepeople around this dealer poached for atotal value of one million pesos. Poachersmade a lot of money out of poaching—inone night they earned 10 times the dailycatch of a fish corral, and in much lesstime. Although the fishers knew this, theydid not follow the bad example. Some ofthem reasoned: “If this continues, theywill destroy the sanctuary and we will allbe victims”. This was an attitude muchchanged from the time the sanctuary was

just being formed. People then wouldhave jumped at the chance to harvest fromthe sanctuary, if they were assured ofprotection from political figures.

It was a happy surprise for the peoplefrom Balas Diyut, when, in early 2000, areasonable population of the mani-mani(Holothuria difficilis), a brown-black seacucumber with a maximum size of 20 cm,appeared on the reef. For several months,during low tide, whole families once againenjoyed their breakfast on the shore.However, it did not take long for thecommercial gatherers to literally surfaceon the reef. At night, aided by the light oftheir kerosene lamps, they picked up kilosof sea cucumbers to be sold to theirneighbour, the sea cucumber dealer.

This did not remain unnoticed by thegleaners and fishers from Balas Diyut.Remembering their experiences of the1980s, a few of them decided that the seacucumbers on the reef in front of theircommunities could only be harvested forlocal consumption. The next night, theyshouted to the divers to leave the area. Tofurther clarify their point, others startedthrowing stones. Afraid that their lampsmight get damaged, the intrudershurriedly left the place.

Community assemblyLourdes, an experienced reef gleaner ofBalas Diyut, says, “By coincidence, acommunity assembly was scheduled in

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the village where the commercial seacucumber gatherers live. One of the olderfishers from our village attended thisassembly and explained that we wantedto preserve the sea cucumbers for our ownconsumption. It looked as if the othersunderstood, but four months later, theywere back again. Chasing them away wasnot done systematically and this is theresult.” Disheartened, she shows me herpoor harvest of the day.

Resource management is indeed morethan getting angry once in a while andlaunching some immediate actions. Itdemands a structurally different way oftreating the resource and fellow resourceusers. So, the local fisher leaders and theNGO Pipuli began to work on a writtenresource management plan, based on theexperiences and ideas of the community.The plan projects some major changes inresource use. In the first place, theprinciple of open access was denouncedas the main factor for the present dismalstate of the resources. Only alimited-access regime would be able togenerate enough fisherfolk support for

resource rehabilitation measures. In thefuture, fishers who want to make use ofthe bay’s resources will have to registerand contribute time for guarding and/ormonitoring. Secondly, the stationary fishcorrals will have to abide by the minimummesh-size rules, in exchange for a total banon the use of fish-scaring devices insidethe bay. Also, there would be a two-yearmoratorium on the gathering of seacucumbers for export. During that period,the stocks would be monitored and asustainable harvesting scheme devised togive priority to local consumption, ratherthan foreign markets.

These measures call for sacrifices frompeople who sometimes find it hard togenerate three meals a day. Still, a majorityof the resident resource users has acceptedthe draft joint municipal ordinance (forBaliangao and Plaridel).

Draft ordinanaceIn the six communities around the Bay, thedraft ordinance was presented duringcommunity consultations initiated by thelocal legislators. During these

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Table : Historical overview of catches of fishers in Danao Bay.

Kind of gear 19501 19601 19801 19972

Fish Corral (kg per day) 25 14 3 1.3

Shell gathering (litres per 3hours)

18 6 3

Sea cucumber gathering(kg live weight per hour)3

100 100 0.54

Status of the source ofproduction:

Mangrove

Corals

800 ha

First fishing with ex-plosives

30ha

Heavy ex-plosive fishing

Some naturalregrowth

Heavy explosivefishing

300 ha (90 hectarereforestation)

Some explosive fishingaround election time

1. Data based on results of workshops with fishers of different age groups

2.. Data based on catch sampling interviews and satellite data on mangrove cover

3. For 1950 to 1980, the catch stated is the potential sea cucumber catch. During the1960s and 1980s, people would only use around half a kilo (which would take themless than a minute to gather) for their home consumption during a few days of themonth.

4. Only fishers who specialize in gathering sea cucumbers at night could catch halfa kilo per hour.


consultations, the fishers who had notbeen part of the process because they werenot members of one of the village-levelorganizations, raised a lot of criticalquestions.

The questions focused on thenecessity and costs for registration,the amount of time they would

have to contribute to guarding and whowould pay for the replacement of thefine-mesh nets with bigger ones. Thefisher leaders themselves answered mostof the questions, aided sometimes by thelocal legislators.

By August 2000, the ordinance had beenwell accepted and embraced by themunicipal councilors of Plaridel, whopassed a motion urging their colleagues inBaliangao to pass a joint ordinance. Theircolleagues in Baliangao said they “didn’thave a problem” with the ordinance, butkept on postponing the decision.

Fisher leaders are now contemplatingtheir next moves. A lot has been done toprepare for a structural change in theresource management regime in DanaoBay. Hopefully, the final steps will also betaken to allow a spillover to other areas,inspiring the small-scale fishers and shellgleaners in Balas Diyut to solve theirproblems in a more structural way.

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This article is by Arjan Heinen([email protected]), SNV advisorto Pipuli Foundation Inc.(www.ozamiz.com/earthcalls), witheditorial inputs from Cornelie Quist([email protected])


Fisher organizations

Faceless no more

The Fishermen’s Pastoral Council has effectively contributed to several political changes in Brazil

The Fishermen’s Pastoral Council(CPP) is a Brazilian organizationclose to the Catholic Church

structure. Recently, during thecelebrations of its 30th anniversary, from17 to 19 November 2000 in Lagoa SecaVillage in Paraíba State, several peoplerecalled various aspects of the history ofthe movement. Since its beginning, CPPhas played an important role insupporting the fishermen of Brazil, andhas effectively contributed to severalpolitical changes. Today, many colôniasaround the country are headed by activefishermen or fishworkers. (Colônia dePescadore is the traditional name for themunicipal or district-level organization offishermen in Brazil.)

According to Bernardo Siry, the presentnational co-ordinator of CPP, at the end ofthe 1960s, when the movement began, itwas made up of fishermen, priests, nunsand other supporters. Starting in some ofthe beaches of Olinda (in theneighbourhood of Recife, the capital ofPernambuco State), the movementcentred around the work of a Franciscanpriest, Alfredo Schnuetgen, a priest whosememory is still alive among manyfishermen’s groups, notably in thenortheastern region of Brazil.

The movement soon outgrew its localcharacter, spreading rapidly to otherregions of Pernambuco and beyond. AsProfessor Luiz Geraldo Silva, from ParanáUniversity, recalled at the celebration,around 30 years ago, two trajectoriesmet—CPP’s and that of the organizedfishermen in Brazil. Since then, thehistories of both have been intertwined.

Bernardo Siry nostalgically recollected theinitial adventures of Alfredo the priest,who didn’t want to be “confined toparishes, but wanted to find the people.”

During his walks along the Olindabeaches, Alfredo had observed theneglected fishermen, whose lives werecharacterized by isolation, distance andsubordination to merchants. He began towork in two communities in Olinda.Initially, it was not an easy task to get themto discover their own reality.

Out of the first meetings with the Olindafishermen was born “ChristianFishermen”, which began to publish aninformative bulletin, O Leme (The Rudder).One of the main difficulties the bulletinaddressed was the existence ofmiddlemen. Toinho, a fisherman who waspart of the early movement, recalled thatthe middlemen owned the boats and thegear, and they forced the fishermen to selltheir products through them. Soon,Alfredo’s discussions stimulated interestin an effective organization for fishermen.Groups of fishermen began to formassociations within the colonias to acquirefishing gear. These groups were the seedsof the future co-operatives.

Those early initiatives soon expanded tothe other beaches of Pernambuco and theneighbouring States. Literacy groupsbegan to be organized for the fishermenand their families. Meanwhile, O Leme wasincreasing its circulation, while a radioprogramme, Voice of the Fisherman, beganto attract listeners in the northeast region.

Autonomous entityIn 1974, Christian Fishermen wasrecognized by the Regional NortheastCNBB (National Conference of BrazilianBishops) and, in 1976, it was declared a“pastoral of national interest”, and namedthe Fishermen’s Pastoral Council, withheadquarters in Recife. In 1978, it becamean autonomous entity, and began to holdgeneral assemblies and meetings fornational co-ordination.

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The fishermen wondered whether itshould turn into a movement forfishermen or remain a pastoral

service for them. After a great deal ofcontroversial debate, they decided on thelatter objective.

Today, the Council has both religious andlay members. It participates in thereligious and cultural occasions of thecommunity, and also in the struggle forthe rights of the fishermen.

The profile of the fishermen is no longerthat of a bunch of workers subservient tomerchants, the military and politicians.Increasingly, more and more fishermenhave been mobilized in a lot of colonias,and this has led to a national movement offishermen.

Today, the role of women is an importantpart of the Council’s work. As early as1974, it supported the organization ofpescadeiras (fisherwomen), as reported inthe early editions of O Leme, copies ofwhich were displayed at the 30thanniversary meeting.

At the meeting, Bernardo emphasized thepioneering role of Sister Nilza, who, in the1970s, began working closely with a groupof fisherwomen of Itapissuma, inPernambuco. It was from Itapissuma that,for the first time in Brazil, a womanbecame the president of a fishermen’scolonia.

The president of the fishermen’s colonia ofRemanso, in Bahia State, recalled, “Thefishermen didn’t know they hadsomebody who could do something forthem.” An added disadvantage was thelack of organization.

Today, thanks to the support of theCouncil and some parishes and diocesesthat gave priority to the cause of thefishermen, four colonias in the Sobradinhoarea are ruled by fishworkers. “Today, afisherman can sit down and talk withanyone, even with the head of thecountry,” said the president.

The testimony of Divino Alves, anotherprofessional leader, was along the samelines: “The fishermen today seethemselves as a category of workers, withspecific problems. The Fishermen’s

Pastoral Council began to show fishermenthat they are individuals with rights anddignity.”

Toinho, president of the colônia fromPenedo, So Francisco River Region,recalled the initial support from CentroJosué de Castro, as well as the help of atechnician from the old official fisheriesinstitute, SUDEPE. Those days, he said,were marked by surveillance by themilitary regime of Brazil, which wassuspicious of any workers’ meetings.

As an important consequence of the workinitiated by the Council, a fisherman waselected president of the NationalFishermen’s Confederation. Soon, thefishermen were clamouring to be officiallyrecognized in the country’s constitution,egged on by Dario, a fisheries technicianwho came to Olinda in 1986.

In Brasília, the country’s capital and hometo the federal government’s headquartersand the National Congress, the fishermenparticipated in a seminar with deputiesand senators who were engaged in theconstitutional process.

A team of fishermen’s leaders and supporttechnicians took charge of lobbying theconstitutional assembly in Brasília. AsToinho reminded the audience, MONAPE,the national fishermen’s movement, wasborn of that early process. “The fight of thefishermen continues, but it was nevereasy,” he recalled.

In 1986, a Constituent Movement wasorganized to put before the country’sConstituent Congress, the views, interestsand propositions of the fishermen.Ricardo Campos, a lawyer and an oldmember of the Fishermen’s PastoralCouncil, recalled that not more than 20years ago, the colonias were dominated bythe military.

Forced affiliationThe Constituent Movement sought tostruggle against the obligatory affiliationof fishermen to the colonias. It also foughtagainst State interventionism, which wasmanifested as statutes promulgated by theMinistry of Agriculture, and by the factthat the president of the NationalConfederation of Fishermen wasnominated by the minister.

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René Schärer, of Prainha do CantoVerde and a member of the NGO,Instituto Terramar, of Ceará State,

pointed out the positive and negativeaspects of the fishermen’s history. Amongthe positive ones were the training coursesfor leadership. “The present leaders ofCeará came from the school of theFishermen’s Pastoral Council,” he said.The courses that Instituto Terramarconducts today are inspired by those earlyprogrammes. As negative points, Renépointed to the inefficient operations in alot of the colonies. He also believed that alarger discussion on fisheriesmanagement is yet to occur.

The posters presented at the 30thAssembly meeting referred to severalseminars and events that had taken placeduring the period, both locally andnationally. On display was a copy of abulletin published by MONAPE, calledFishing and Struggling, as well as a copy ofa “Letter on the Fundamental Rights of theArtisanal Fishermen of the World,” whichtalked of the right for women toparticipate in fisherworkers’organizations and in fishing activities.

Professor Luiz Geraldo da Silva, ahistorian who had worked in the Councilbetween 1986 and 1990, and who is theauthor of The Fishermen in the History ofBrazil, reminded the Assembly that thefirst indigenous inhabitants of Brazil usedthe swamps, the rivers and the sea. With

the arrival of the Portuguese and,especially after the 18th century, slavesbegan to be employed in the fisheries. Theprice of a slave fisherman varied withspecialization. There were shrimp fisherslaves, shell collectors, manufacturers ofrafts, etc., Geraldo explained.

The professor also reminded his audiencethat since the 18th century, middlemenhave been operating on the beaches. Thenthey owned corrals (fixed traps), nets, andranches of coconut trees. Fishermen had topay for the right to build the straw huts fortheir boats and fishing materials. Theirfreedom was restricted, as they wereobliged to the middlemen.

Navy recruitmentIn the 19th century, Geraldo continued,the State began to see the fisherman as an“ideal type of servant for the navy.” After1840, the navy began to create “Districts ofFishing” along the Brazilian coast, in arecruitment drive for warship crew.Fishermen, along with other seafaringcategories, were supposed to enroll inthose districts. Though those earlymariners were seen as the advancedsentry for the nation, they met withrepression, and were forced to move awayfrom their families and communities.Around 1919, the navy embarked on amilitary mission of creating colonias offishermen, along the whole Braziliancoast. The intention was, always, to recruitindividuals into the navy.

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In that era, male and female fishers weresocially invisible, although they wereessential as food producers, and wereresponsible for the profits of severalcategories of middlemen. In time, theirprofile changed, as different strategiesentered their agenda, such as the fight forenlightened public policy anddevelopment programmes, the search fora rational use of aquatic resources, and therecognition of the role of women infisheries. Nowadays, fishers are no longercontent with fighting for mere existenceand organization. They demand the rightto dignity and public recognition,production infrastructure, a healthyenvironment, political representation,professional capacity enhancement, andsocial and welfare rights.

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This report was written by MariaCristina Maneschy([email protected]), Professor,Federal University of Para, Belem,Brazil


North Sea fishery

Enough is enough!

The closure of an extensive part of the North Sea led to a blockade of Rotterdam, the world’s biggest seaport, by angry Dutch fishermen

“This is an undemocratic decision, and we askourselves, for how long can the Dutch fishercommunity persist under these policies? Orare we soon only to see fishermen inmuseums?”

These words of indignation anddespair were uttered at a meetingafter the emergency decision of the

Fishery Commission of the EuropeanUnion to close an extensive part of theNorth Sea for fishing, from mid-Februaryuntil the first of May. A big part of theclosed area is exactly along the coast of theNetherlands and forms the mostimportant fishing ground for the Dutch.For the Dutch fisher community, it was anenormous blow in the face, as theyrecently also had to accept a largereduction of their quota of plaice and sole,the most important target species for theDutch fishermen. Furthermore, they arestill recovering from the oil price crisis. Asa fisher-woman said, “All together, itmeans that we will see our yearly incomereduced by more than 25 per cent, and thisis very hard for us women, who areresponsible for the management of thehousehold. We have not been given anychance to prepare for such an incomereduction, even as our fixed expensescontinue.”

The emergency decision of the EU-FisheryCommission was due to the depletion ofstocks of codfish, which have reachedalarmingly low levels. Biologists,fishermen and policymakers all agree thatsomething has to be done urgently to helpthe codfish rehabilitate. Therefore,consultations had already taken placebetween the Commission andpolicymakers and representatives offisher organizations of the Europeanmember States, about the measuresneeded. This was not an easy process,because several interests were at stake,

and there were different ideas aboutregulations. Another factor was thefishery agreement of the EU with Norway,with whom the EU shares the codfishstocks. So, the decision was primarilybased on political grounds, and the Dutchfisher community now feels victimized.

As their first objection, the Dutch fisherssay that the emergency decision will nothave the expected results of rehabilitatingcodfish stocks, as the area, which isdesignated for closure, is not a typicalcodfish ground (a hypothesis supportedby biologists). Secondly, there are only afew cod fishers left in the Netherlands,and the Dutch primarily fish flatfishes(plaice and sole) and shrimp.

The Netherlands has only been allocated10 per cent of the Total Allowable Catch(TAC) of codfish, of which only 5 per centis caught by cod fishers, while the other 5per cent is bycatch by the flatfish fishers.The Dutch fishers fail to see why theyshould be the ones to be affected most bythis measure. They are also angry by thefact that the Danish fishmeal fishery isallowed in the closed areas, although thistype of fishery is generally consideredvery destructive. Finally, they also warn ofunwanted side effects of the measure,which will lead to increased pressure onthe fishing grounds outside the closedareas, resulting in overfishing, resourceconflicts between fishermen, and otherdamages.

Sudden decisionDue to the sudden decision of the FisheryCommission, the two Dutch nationalfisher organizations were not able toorganize any other form of protest than tomeet the State Minister of Fisheries to urgeher to plead with the Fishery Commissionfor an alternative proposal. Thisalternative proposal was to impose a

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fishing ban during the spawning time ofthe cod for the whole of the North Sea,which would be more effective and fair, asfar as sharing the costs is concerned.

In support, the Women in FisheriesNetwork of the Netherlandsimmediately wrote a letter to the State

Minister, supporting the alternativeproposal, but also telling her about theproblems the fisher families face thesedays: “We want to fight for the position ofour families. If the present situationcontinues, we will be forced to leave thefishery and choose jobs on the shore. Thisthought makes us unhappy, and we thinkthis can not be the intention ofpolicymakers.”

Women of the Network also wrote lettersto members of parliament and the media,which contributed to the mobilization of abroad support. The State Minister ofFisheries was sent to meet the EU FisheryCommission to plead for the alternativeproposal of the Dutch fisher-community,but, unfortunately, without success.

To find support for their alternativeproposal, the Dutch fisher organizationscontacted other fisher organizations inEurope. But, again, they did not succeed.Unfortunately, there is very littlesolidarity within the fisher community ofEurope. Every one tries to settle dealsthrough their own fishery ministers,without considering the interests of the

other communities. So it happened thatthe EU member States that do not fish inthe North Sea supported the decision ofthe EU Fishery Commission. That act willgreatly affect the future of the North Seafisher community.

“We fishermen, from north to south, havebeen talking a lot to each other these daysthrough the radio. All of us are surprisedand sad that the decision to close parts ofthe North Sea is pushed through, and thatalternative and better solutions are nottaken into consideration. We will nowsurely see a big reduction in our incomes.Our costs will even increase because weare forced to leave our fishing groundsand go farther. Our last hope now is toreceive financial compensation. If not, wewill no longer refrain from action.” Thisquote from a Dutch fisherman, faxed tothe national fishery paper, is a goodsummary of how the fisher communityfelt at that moment.

Emergency meetsThe Dutch fisher organizations calledtheir members for emergency meetings allover the country, to sound them out onwhat further action to take. For severalfishermen, particularly the younger ones,this emergency decision of the EU was thelimit, and they called for “hard actions.”These days, the younger fishermen gothrough very hard times, becauseinvestment costs have increasedenormously, while the value of their boats

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and quotas is decreasing. Some of themsaid that they would lose 60 to 70 per centof their income because of the closure oftheir fishing ground. The fishermencriticized the EU fishery policy in thesewords: “The EU fishery management onlymeans rules and restrictions, new onesevery day. A fisherman has to go touniversity these days to understand theenormous amount of regulations. Andwhat has been the result? The number offishermen has declined, and the income offishermen has declined, but the fish stockshave not significantly improved. Thesequota reductions have only caused anexpansion of the black market of fish andall kind of other unwanted practices.”

Soon, emotions were running high. Theleadership, however, felt that they shouldbe cautious not to lose the sympathy of the

public. In the past, the fisher communityhad often met with negative publicity inthe media, partly because of the bad imagespread by environmental organizations,which have a broad support with thepublic, and partly also because of theirown attitude and weak public relations.

Meanwhile, the fishermen were provokedby the deployment of a large number ofcoast guard boats, helicopters andairplanes to control the closed areas. Itlooked like the State was preparing for awar with the fishermen, who read it as asign of mistrust. One boat that violated theboundary of the closed areas was fined anexorbitant amount of 30,000 Englishpounds. When the Netherlands StateMinister of Fisheries also refused todiscuss any form of compensation or anyalternative, the leaders of the fisher

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In the Netherlands, the cutter fleet is the largest’traditional’ Dutch fishing fleet. In 1999, theDutch cutter fishing fleet composed 399 boats,of which 56 per cent were small-scale boats(under 300 hp) and 44 per cent weremedium-scale ones (301-2000 hp). The largemajority of the boats (80 per cent) are morethan 10 years old.

Most (84 per cent) of the fishing enterprises ofthe cutter fleet generally own one boat only.The enterprises are primarily family-owned, andare passed on from generation to generation.The official employment figure of the fleet is1.815 fishermen, but, generally, familymembers lend a helping hand in the work. Theremuneration of the crew is based on a sharesystem, which means that no realemployer-employee relationship exists. TheDutch cutter fleet is concentrated in the northand southwest parts of the Netherlands. Thelargest fishing village, Urk, is, strangely,situated in the centre of the country. This isbecause this village was once an island in thesea (Zuiderzee), but after the sea was closedby a dike and land reclamation began, Urkbecame part of the mainland. The communityof Urk is still 80 per cent dependent onfisheries, including trade and processing.

The primary technology used by the cutter fleetis the trawl net (with beam and otter-board),and the major commercial species caught areflatfish (sole and plaice) and shrimp. Codfish

also used to be a target species, but, atpresent, there are hardly any cod fishers left inthe Netherlands. The fish harvest is for humanconsumption only, mostly for southernEuropean consumers.

Since the introduction of the EU’s CommonFishery Policy and the TAC quota system, theDutch fleet has faced overcapacity. To controland reduce the Dutch cutter fleet, the followingmanagement regulations were installed: (a)quota system (Individual Transferable Quotas,pooled in eight management groups); (b)obligatory auctioning; (c) licences (for boatsand the 12-miles zone); (d) gear regulations(for engine capacity and mesh size); (e) limitson the number of days at sea (177); and (f) adecommissioning scheme for boats.

Fish prices in the Netherlands are still good,and the sector, as such, is economically’healthy’ at present. Yet, obviously, due to theyearly increase in operation costs and thereduction of quotas, more and more fishingenterprises of the cutter fleet fail to break even,and decide to go in for decommissioning.

This has led to a reduction of the number offishing boats by 45 per cent since 1987, and areduction by 40 per cent of the number ofemployed fishermen. In the last two weeks,another 12 Dutch cutters have reported fordecommissioning, among them the last full-timecod fishers.


organizations could no longer keep theirmembers under control.

On the first of March, fishermenspontaneously started toblockade the major harbours of

the Netherlands. Soon, practically allfishermen had joined in. The leadership ofthe fisher organizations could no longermaintain a reserved attitude. The actionwas effective, particularly because thefishermen succeeded in blocking access toRotterdam, the world’s biggest seaport. Atnight, the leaders of the two fisherorganizations succeeded in reaching anagreement with the State Minister about acompensation. The blockade wasimmediately called off.

Compensation is, of course, not a solution.However, the good news is that thegenerally divided fisher communityunderwent the experience of being united.For a long time, both fisher organizationspitched in together with their strengths.Also very positive were the discussionsand exchanges within the fishercommunity at meetings and also via radiocommunication at sea. For the fishermen,it became clear that it is now time tobecome more proactive about the fisherymanagement of the North Sea, in order tosurvive as self-employed fisher families. Agroup of young fishermen decided toform a working group to prepare, togetherwith the two fisher organizations,proposals for a fish rehabilitation plan for

the North Sea, and promote theseproposals to the government. Theproposals should aim to protect themarine environment in such a way thatfishermen would still be able to runhealthy fishing enterprises. Dutchfishermen are entrepreneurs, but, at thesame time, fishing is a way of life for them,where they directly interact with nature.

Another good news is that the Dutchfisher community succeeded in winningthe attention of the public. But now theyhave to work hard to maintain thisattention in a positive way. Generallyspeaking, there exists some’communication gap’ between the fishercommunity and the rest of Dutch society.One reason may be that our fishercommunity has shrunk enormouslyduring the last century and what is left aresmall pockets of well-organized, but alsorather closed, communities. The latterfacet is a strength, as these communitiescould retain a relative autonomy; yet, it isalso a weakness, as they need the supportof other sections of society to survive. It isalso tragic that such a relatively smallfisher community as exists in theNetherlands needs two nationalorganizations to represent them.

Different interestsTo be sure, the EU should learn to deal withthe different interests within its domain insuch a way that Europe’s diversity isrespected and her citizens are left their

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dignity. Until now, fishermen are oftenseen as a nuisance, instead of partners inthe management of European fisheries,which has a counterproductive impact.However, the attitudes of the EU fishercommunities have to change too. There isstill a lot of shortsightedness and inwardlooking tendencies within thecommunities. Hopefully, the leaders ofthe fisher organizations will put in moreeffort in meeting one another at theEuropean level, and working together forthe preservation of both the marineresources and the communities whodepend on them.

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This article is by Cornelie Quist([email protected]),amember of ICSF, and the contactperson of the Women in FisheriesNetwork of the Netherlands

The last of the Dutch cod fishers Jaap Tuip, leader of the roundfish (cod) fishers,and vice-president of the Dutch Fishermen’sUnion, does not see a future anymore for hiscutter boat, the VD 19, circa 1971, the lastfull-time roundfish fishing boat, along with theUK 7, the twin of the VD 19. (In theNetherlands cod fishing is traditionally done inpairs.) Both boats have reported fordecommissioning. The closure by the EU of thefishing ground in the North Sea was the majorreason for this decision. “Normally,” says Tuip,“we make nice trips this time of the year to theinside of the Brown Bench and, thereafter, inthe direction of the German Bight, but theseareas are closed now. Going to farther areas isbeyond the scope of the small boats.”

Another problem is the reduction of the quotafor cod by 50 per cent this year; renting of extraquota is too expensive. Though there iswhiting, another roundfish, the cod fishers haveno quota for this species. 1998 and 1999 werevery good years for the VD 19 and UK 7 pair.“But, today”, says Tuip, “you won’t make apenny out of it anymore.” Tuip himself will stopfishing, but fisherman van de Berg of the UK 7wants to look around for a new fishing boat.“We are looking for a multi-functional boat,because, these days, you need to be able toswitch between gears easily,” he says.

(From Visserij Nieuws, 23 February 2001)


Resource depletion

Poking the bubble

Alarmed by declining fish resources like sturgeon, the Russian government launches a plan to revive its fishing industry

In an effort to revive Russia’sfoundering fish industry and protectits waters from poachers, the

government plans to create a state-runNational Fish Resources organization,within the existing State Committee forFisheries. The new organization will dealexclusively with the protection andimprovement of natural fish resourcesthroughout Russia.

Western and Russian legal exporters ofsturgeon black caviar, concerned aboutthe large black-market trade, are alsoeager to eliminate poaching andsmuggling channels. The State Committeefor Fisheries data shows that black-marketfish exports deprive the exchequer of $300to $500 million annually.

The Russian fish industry plunged into afull-fledged crisis after the collapse of theSoviet Union. Russia’s ailingfish-producing enterprises—from fleets toprocessing plants—may have alreadybecome obsolete by the year 2000.Two-thirds are already severely outdatedand have become a burden for the Stateexchequer.

The government’s intention to restructurethe fishing industry was clear when, inlate April 1999, the then Prime Minister,Yevgeny Primakov, described the fishingindustry as “one of the most disorganizedsectors of Russia’s economy.” Accordingto data from the Russian Association ofFish Producers and Exporters, thenational production of fish is currentlyonly one-third of the 1990 figure,amounting to 2.6 million tonnes a year.

The director of the Federal Border GuardService, Konstantin Totsky, says thatillegal fishing in the Pacific Ocean stripbelonging to Russia has lately increasedsignificantly. Fishermen from Japan,

South Korea, China and Poland are takingadvantage of Russia’s reduced fish takes.

Russian border guards have alreadydetained 222 fishing vessels fishingwithout licences off Russia’s far-easterncoast this year; a third of them wereforeign vessels.

But there is still hope for Russia’s fishresources in the Pacific. Not so for CaspianSea sturgeon, Russia’s most valued fish.The sturgeon is on the brink of extinctionbecause of mafia-controlled poaching forthe fish’s black caviar. Sturgeon and blackcaviar production has shrunkdramatically. In the 1980s, the AstakhanFish Processing Factory (now RusskayaIkra) was producing 1,300 tonnes of blackcaviar annually, mostly for export, withrevenues of around $350 million. Thesturgeon catch from the Caspian Seaduring the last decade was over 100,000tonnes a year, and its black caviarproduction 1,500 tonnes. Black caviarproduction dropped throughout the pastdecade, reaching 150 tonnes last year. Thesturgeon take from the Caspian alsodropped a hundred times, to 1,000 tonnes.

Russian fish farms release 50 million babysturgeon each year, but resources remainlow, as increasing numbers of the fish arecaught before reaching maturity and legalweight. Experts also warn that extensiveoil-drilling development planned for theCaspian Sea will deal the last blow to itssturgeon population.

Not well knownIn Russia, rational exploitation of fishresources is not a well-known concept.Lev Bucharov, director of the PacificFisheries Research Center, complains thatsome fish species, such as sturgeon, arecaught in excessive amounts, while othersare not fished at all.

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Turkey, with no access to the Caspian Sea,is now the world’s second largest exporterof black caviar. In 1998, Turkish exportsreached 120 tonnes of caviar, boughtmainly from Dagestan and Azerbaijan.

The flourishing black market, Russia’sinability to pace fishing to suit existingresources, and increased fishing by othercountries in its waters, are sinkingRussia’s fishing industry. Its Soviet-stylefacilities will only poke the bubble until itbursts.

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This is from a story filed by AnnaVlasova in The Russia Journal


The World Forums

Wag the dog

This is a response to Brian O’ Riordan’s article in SAMUDRA Report No. 27 and an attempt to set the record right on what happened at Loctudy, France

The analysis of the events leading tothe breakup of the World Forum ofFish Harvesters and Fish Workers

(WFF) and the formation of the WorldForum of Fisher Peoples (WFFP), authoredby Brian O’Riordan, the Secretary of ICSF’sBrussels office, and published in SAMUDRAReport No. 27, was disheartening andprovoking.

In this response, what has been attemptedis not a counter-analysis of the events inLoctudy in October 2000, nor is it apoint-to-point rejoinder to O’Riordan’sarticle. Rather, it attempts to take up, inthe light of bare facts, some of theassumptions or implied suggestions ofO’Riordan behind the breakup (orbreakdown) of WFF.

O’Riordan refers to a struggle between theIndians and the Canadians to wrestcontrol of the WFF. Yes, there was astruggle. Every struggle involves aminimum of two parties. But it is naive tothink that both the parties struggletowards the same end. More often, whenone side struggles for power andsupremacy, the other party struggles forequality or even survival. We have seenthis clearly in the struggles of nations forindependence.

When the US or India struggled against theBritish, one side struggled to continue theimposition of domination over the other,while the other had no alternative but tojoin the struggle just to protect its duerights and to be accepted and respected asan equal. To the British, unity meant thecontinuation of the British empire; but, forthe Americans and the Indians, unitymeant collaborating to create a worldorder based on equality and respect forone another. Yes, both the Indians and theAmericans who struggled against theBritish can be seen as breakers of unity or

the cause of a shipwreck, but that dependsfrom which side one views the struggle.

O’Riordan has simply stated that eachside struggled for power, but he has notbothered to substantiate his statement.Even if one takes—or pretends to take—animpartial view of the situation, when thestruggle is between a culpable party andan honest party, such a view favours theculpable. Surely, O’Riordan knows who iswho, but, for some strange reason, heprefers to place both parties on the samelevel. A few facts amply demonstrate thatwhile the lobby led by the Canadiandelegation struggled for power, the lobbyled by the Indian delegation was forced tojoin the struggle, not to wield power butfor freedom, equality and survival:

• The Canadian Council ofProfessional Fish Harvesters(CCPFH) initiated a proposal to theCanadian InternationalDevelopment Agency (CIDA),which was never discussed in theCo-ordination Committee (CC),and the General Co-ordinator ofthe WFF (an Indian) had noinformation whatsoever that sucha step had been taken by CCPFH onbehalf of WFF. If that was not aneffort to wrest control of WFF, whatwas it? When the Indiandelegation questioned this actionof the Canadians, O’Riordandiscerned it as a struggle for powerbetween the Canadians and theIndians!

• The CC had set a last date foradmission of new members to theWFF and had decided uponprocedures for such admission.This was to ensure that memberswho join the WFF towards the endof the three-year interim period

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would not exercise undueinfluence on the proceedings of theConstitutional Assembly. But theAssistant Co-ordinator (aCanadian), who had not recruiteda single member for almost threeyears, suddenly brought in 12 newmembers from Latin America, justbefore the Constituent Assemblybegan. This was done after thedeadline for new members hadlapsed, and did not follow theprocedures agreed upon by the CC.Though this unlawful decisionwas clearly a means of gatheringvotes at the Constituent Assembly,the General Co-ordinator went outof his way to accommodate it, andhad the new entrants declared asfull-fledged members of WFF, withvoting rights and so on, hopingthat good sense would prevail. Butthat did not happen, as eventsproved later. If that was not astruggle, by hook or crook, forpower by the Canadiandelegation, what was it?

• The Canadian and the Americanleaders (of the WFF) were very keenon establishing a law by whichthey would have permanentmembership at the CC. Thisinsidious intention andoutrageous ambition of the NorthAmerican delegation was exposedby the lobby led by the Indians. But

O’Riordan sees this as a “bizarredebate” over the number ofcontinents. If that was not astruggle for power by the NorthAmericans and a struggle forfreedom and equality by theIndians, what was it? A bizarredebate? No, it was a struggle tofree the North American leadersfrom their bizarre ambition forpower.

A reference to the “bizarre debate over thenumber of continents” figures severaltimes in O’Riordan’s reflections.Therefore, it is necessary to look at it a littlemore closely and understand both thefoolishness and the seriousness of theissue. The question is what wasbizarre—the debate or the understandingof the debate by O’Riordan?

The North American leaders wanted theworld to believe that the debate was abizarre one. What surprises us is thatO’Riordan himself believes it! (Or doeshe?)

Escapism at workHere we have a clear case of escaping thereal issue, or rather insincerity in facingthe real issue, and making it appearinstead like a ridiculous non-issue. Welldone, North American delegation! Sinceyou could not fight the issue, you havesuccessfully diverted the attention of evenintelligent persons to non-issues.

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The real issue was one ofproportionate representation at theCC and at other levels of the WFF.

That every country, generally, has onemembership at the WFF was already anaccepted principle. The ContinentalCouncils were also under discussion, andeach continent was supposed to send twomembers to the CC. Everybody knowsthat there are only two countries in NorthAmerica, while other continents have 30,40 or more. If North America wereaccepted as a separate continent, for thepurposes of the WFF, it would mean thatthe US and Canada would each havepermanent membership at the CC.

If one considers as bizarre a CC withoutboth the Americans and the Canadians,then, yes, you are right, O’Riordan. If thatwere the case, the debate was indeedbizarre. Let there be six continents orten—or any number, for that matter. Thatwas not the issue. The real issue was ofproportionate representation of membercountries and the population of fisherpeoples (the actual stakeholders for whomthe WFF exists) at all levels in the WFF.

O’Riordan distinguishes between twodifferent types of leadership. One is thecharismatic leadership of massmovements, requiring unquestioningloyalty; and the other is the leadership forprofessional rights, requiringnegotiations. He further implies that thestyle of leadership of the NationalFishworkers Forum (NFF) requiresunquestioning loyalty, which is (or seen tobe) dictatorial and undemocratic.

Without going into the relevance orirrelevance of making such a distinction,and the misleading aspects of attributinga dictatorial and undemocratic style offunctioning to the NFF leadership, it will bebetter to review facts and decide who wasdictatorial and undemocratic. O’Riordanhas made a learned statement, withoutgiving even one example of undemocraticaction by the NFF leadership, whichdemanded unquestioning loyalty.

Consider, instead, these facts:

• It took almost three years for theCCPFH to present an auditedstatement of accounts of themoney it had collected for the

Delhi meeting. Some seriousquestions posed to the CCPFHregarding money, raised at the CCmeetings and at the ConstituentAssembly, still remainunanswered. Yet, the CCPFHexpects its transparency infinancial matters to beunquestioningly accepted.

• The CCPFH brought in 12member-nations into the WFF afterthe deadline decided by theCo-ordination Committee, andwithout following the normsagreed for acceptance of newmembers. Members were broughtin through the back door by theCCPFH, but, in the case of the NFF,they were allowed to come inthrough the front door through ademocratic process initiated by theNFF leadership. If the GeneralCo-ordinator and the NFF haddemanded unquestioning loyaltyto accepted norms, the CCPFHwould not have had thedemocratic strength to standwhere it does now.

• An opinion was expressed at a CCmeeting that the WFF should notcollaborate with Greenpeace. Thatwas just an opinion, and no finaldecision had ever been made. Andyet, the democratic CCPFHdemanded absolute loyalty fromThomas Kocherry, the GeneralCo-ordinator from India, anddenounced him for joining a groupto protest against globalizationand the World Trade Organization(WTO), just because Greenpeacewas also a member of that group.

• The American member of the WFFCC, as head of the Pacific CoastFederation of Fishermen’sAssociations (which is a memberof WFF), can have opencollaboration with a group inwhich Greanpeace is also an activemember. But, in any of his variouscapacities, Thomas Kocherryshould not only shun Greenpeaceat all times and in all places, butshould also not collaborate withgroups with which Greenpeaceassociates. Did the North

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American and European WFF CCmembers think that they werecharismatic leaders of massmovements that they coulddemand unquestioning loyaltyand submission from ThomasKocherry to their own whims andfancies? If such a stance is notdictatorial and a denial of anIndividual’s freedom, pray, tell us,what is it?

• The CCPFH, which is said to achieveits goals through negotiations anda democratic process, took the leadin writing to Greenpeace,denouncing Thomas Kocherry’scollaboration with them. This wasdone in the name of the CC, thoughit was never discussed at the CCmeeting. The CCPFH leaders didnot find it necessary to clarify thematter with Thomas Kocherry ornegotiate with him. They simplyexpected, or demanded,unquestioning loyalty from thehead of their organization to theirown whims and fancies, even astheir sense of democracy andnegotiation did not prevent themfrom denouncing their owndemocratically elected leader to athird party.

• The democratic negotiating groupcould not even accept fordiscussion a proposed resolutionfrom the Spanish delegates. TheFrench leader walked out of the CCmeeting at the very suggestion ofaccepting the proposal fordiscussion at the generalassembly, and the CCPFH stronglysupported the French action ofvetoing the resolution.

• In all discussions anddecision-making at the CCmeetings, Thomas Kocherry hasalways stood for consensus; he hasnot claimed the democratic right ofdeciding by a majority of votes.Had that right been claimed, therewould have been at least onewoman co-opted into the CC.

• During the three years that he heldthe office of General Co-ordinatorof the WFF, there was one really

undemocratic action on the part ofThomas Kocherry. That was theinitiative he took in gettingFrancois Poulin appointed asAssistant Co-ordinator, in 1997.The General Assembly, which hadjust concluded, had not createdsuch a post.

Surely, O’Riordan should be in the knowof all these facts because of his closecollaboration with the WFF Secretariat andthe then General Co-ordinator. It is reallystrange that he could even suggest thatThomas Kocherry’s style of functioningwas dictatorial and undemocratic. To besure, a theoretical analysis of the two typesof leadership (of professionalrepresentation and mass movements) hasits merits. But O’Riordan’s attempt atidentifying them does not even take acasual glance at facts. But when onetakes—or decides to take or is made totake—a deviant stance, then facts do notmatter.

Was there a debate over Greenpeace at theConstituent Assembly, either at the CCmeetings during the Assembly or at any ofthe general sessions? Greenpeace wasjointly invited by the NFF and the CCPFH tothe Delhi meeting in 1997. There was justone person (Arthur Bogason of Iceland)who voiced opposition to collaborationwith Greenpeace, but neither did anydiscussion take place nor was anydecision made. The matter did, however,come up again at later CC meetings, and adecision was made not to inviteGreenpeace to the Constituent Assembly,a decision that was followed. During theConstituent Assembly, just one personraised the question as to why Greenpeacewas not present. Again, there was nodiscussion or decision. How, then, doesO’Riordan perceive an explosion on theissue of relationship with Greenpeace?

Ill perceptionThis, again, is a case of misperception orill perception. The debate at theConstituent Assembly, both at the CCmeetings and at the General Assembly,was not about Greenpeace, but aboutletting down the General Co-ordinator ofthe WFF to a third party, which happenedto be Greenpeace. A letter was written inthe name of the CC, when such a letter ormatter was never discussed at the CC. That

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letter, denouncing the Co-ordinator of theWFF, was sent to Greenpeace, withouteven a copy forwarded to the GeneralCo-ordinator.

The letter was obviously formulatedduring the days of the CC meetingat San Francisco. This can be

deduced from the fact that a member ofthe CC, who arrived at San Franciaco justafter the CC meeting ended, was presentedwith that letter for a signature, and wasdeceived into believing that it was adecision of the CC to send such a letter toGreenpeace. The member concernedconfirmed this at Loctudy.

The whole issue of the letter toGreenpeace is very uncivilized, viciousand malicious. The issue at Loctudy wasthe undemocratic, indecent and stealthyaction against the General Co-ordinator ofthe WFF, authored by his own top-levelcolleagues, the North American andEuropean members of the WFF CC. Thatletter could as well have been written toany other group. That was not the point atall. How could O’Riordan possibly pickup relationship with Greenpeace as anissue during the Constituent Assembly atLoctudy? It is even more outrageous thathe missed perceiving the insidious aspectof this so-called Greenpeace issue.

In any international organization, personsfrom different countries hold variousoffices and responsibilities. When

criticisms are made against them, they aredirected individually to thosepersons—who may happen to be fromany nation. It is childish and immature toassume that such allegations are madeagainst the countries they come from.How absurd it is to believe that theircountries were being attacked! Ifsomeone, assuming that the attack was onhis or her country, felt shocked ordismayed or wounded, one can bebroadminded and generous inappreciating that sense of patriotism,misplaced though it is. But suchpatriotism is not going to do any good tothe process of building up internationalsolidarity. Such persons should be helpedto grow out of their misplaced, tokensense of loyalty to their countries.O’Riordan seems to have unconditionalsympathy for such behaviour. What iseven more absurd is that he seems tobelieve that allegations were made againstCanada as a nation.

Whose voice?O’Riordan’s conclusion seems to be thatthe existence or the non-existence of aWorld Forum—one or more—makes nodifference to the lives and struggles of thefisher peoples all over the world. He statesthat, with or without these world bodies,the fishing communities the world overwill find ways to express solidarity andunite to make their voices heard. Onewonders which international collective hewould propose as the voice of the fishing

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communities. On the other hand, theeditorial comment of SAMUDRA ReportNo. 27, an organ of ICSF, whose Brussel’soffice secretary O’Riordan is, expresses adifferent opinion.

Drawing a comparison from a graphicexample or incident can make the readinginteresting and help in understandingcertain aspects of the matter in question.But when a complete parallel is forcefullyapplied, the example takes over thedriver’s seat, as it were, while the realmatter under discussion gets pushed tothe rear seat. It is like the tail wagging thedog! An example can only be a tool; anoverapplication of it clouds the issue.

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This response has been written bySavarimuthu Santiago([email protected]), a formermember of the WFF Secretariat


South Brittany

Economic ecology

An experiment with cuttlefish in South Brittany shows that it is possible to harmonize economy and ecology

Ecology, economy and communityare three inter-related andindispensable aspects of

sustainable development, comprising thethree basic requisites of a triangularrelationship that must be met ifsustainable development is to beachieved.

In the current context, environmentalconcerns are all too often seen to conflictwith economic interests and communityneeds such as food, income and wastedisposal. Fishermen are all too oftendepicted as being at odds withenvironmental conservation, despite anobvious linkage between environmentalsustainability and economic and socialwellbeing. Rather than conserve stocks fortomorrow, fishworkers find themselvesunder increasing social and economicpressure to catch what is availabletoday—never mind about tomorrow.However, as this article will try to show,fishworkers are all too aware of the needfor ecological sustainability to maintaintheir ways of life. Increasingly, fishingcommunities are getting involved inpromoting sustainable fisheries throughself-imposed quotas, voluntary tie-ups,closed areas and the use of selectivefishing gear.

From March through June, a seasonalfishery for cuttlefish (Sepia officinalis) takesplace in the coastal waters off Brittany,when they come to spawn off Finistere.This fishery is not merely a subsidiaryfishery, but constitutes an importantresource for the fishermen.

There is, however, a problem oflarge-scale destruction of cuttlefish eggs,which undermines the resource. The trapsused in this fishery are the preferredspawning substrate for the cuttlefish.Their eggs are then destroyed when the

traps are cleaned, once the fishing seasonis over. Such destruction could haveharmful consequences for the cuttlefishstocks that are apparently still in a healthycondition. A short lifecycle (one to twoyears) makes the cuttlefish a specieswhose stock levels can fluctuateconsiderably from one year to the next. Ifthere are adverse environmentalconditions offshore (coastal pollution, forexample) during hatching, and they arecombined with the destruction of eggs, adecline in the resources could be caused inthe following year. Fishermen whoundertake this seasonal activity everyyear are well aware of this problem, andthat is what started the project forconservation.

First of all, it was a matter of finding themethods that would allow the eggs tohatch. The experiments undertaken inJune-July 1998 did not pretend to providesolutions for managing the species, butshowed the willingness and resolve offishermen to play a role in managing theresource. The exercise consisted of leavingthe traps in an area of sheltered water,once the fishing season was over, to allowthe eggs to hatch. Monitoring the hatchingof batches of eggs stocked in specific areashas provided the basis of thisexperimentation.

Second phaseIn its second phase, the project sought toestablish a resource managementmethodology adapted to the workingroutine of professional fishermen. Withthis end in mind, several related projectshave been undertaken along the Frenchcoastline, where the cuttlefish constitutesa not inconsiderable resource. A synthesisof these has enabled us to make a numberof proposals for sustainable resource use,which take into account the everydayconstraints of the professionals. To

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achieve this, it is necessary to engage in acollective consultation and come up withthe most realistic solution, in terms ofefficiency and cost.

The common cuttlefish, Sepiaofficinalis, is abundant in theEastern Atlantic and

Mediterranean. It is a coastal species thatis found at depths no deeper than 150 m.Its sepion (bone) is not resistant tohydrostatic pressure above 15atmospheres. It lives on the sea bottom, onloose substrates, hiding in the daytime,and coming out at night, except during thebreeding season, when it is equally activeduring the daytime.

The cuttlefish is a coleoid cephalopodmollusc, characterized by tentaclesencircling the mouth. Its behaviour ismore like that of fish than other molluscs.Octopus and squid are also coleoidcephalopods.

Like almost all cephalopods, the cuttlefishis a predator. It feeds on live prey, mainlycrustaceans, fish and cephalopods. Thecrustaceans are mainly crabs, prawns and,for small cuttlefish, mycids andamphipods. The fish are bottom-livingspecies, sharing the same habitat as thecuttlefish (gobies, wrasses, flatfish, etc), asare the smaller-sized cuttlefish on whichthey feed. The cuttlefish reproduce inspring (from March to June), but latespawning may take place in summer (June

and July). Sexual dimorphism makes iteasy to distinguish the sexes: the males arelarger with black stripes; in addition, theyhave a reproductive arm (the ventral leftarm) with suction pads at the base; thefemales are smaller, duller and rounderbellied. Mating takes place head-on (in ahead-to-head’ position). The male seizesthe female by the head, and the arms of theanimals intertwine. The male places somespermatophores in the pocket situatedunder the mouth of the female; thedischarged spermatophores are stockedthere up to the egg-laying time, whichtakes place some time after mating.

The females attach their eggs in bunches,using their arms, on various substrates:tubes, seaweed, traps, etc. The externalenvelope of the eggs is stained black witha little ink. The black coloration and thearrangement of the bunches give rise tothe cuttlefish eggs being named “bunchesof grapes”. The females deposit severalhundred eggs during a period of severaldays. The spent animals die afterreproduction.

Impact of trapsVarious studies undertaken in the Gulf ofMoribihan have shown that traps are thefavoured egg-laying sites of the cuttlefish.The impact of traps is, therefore, veryimportant in this sector, where it has beenestimated that an average of 28 millioneggs are laid every three years on thesesurfaces. Exactly the same problem is

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faced in the estuary of Pont L’Abbé, thedifference being that fishing effort is muchless than in the Gulf of Moribihan.

The experiments carried out duringJune and July 1998 were meant notonly to ensure the viability of the

eggs attached to the traps, but also toallow them to hatch. The operations ofhauling and setting traps during thefishing season could have affected thequality of the eggs.

At the close of the fishing season (end ofMay), 40 traps, each containing around3,000 eggs, were placed in the lagoon atLoctudy. This lagoon is separated fromthe sea by a dike that allows access to thetraps on foot at each low tide. What ismore, the lagoon is in direct contact withthe open sea, so that each high tide coversthe dike. This allows the young cuttlefishto return to the open sea.

Ten traps were used in the study; the other30 were immersed in the lagoon. A vivier(container) made from plastic meshes wasattached in each of the 10 (test) traps, inwhich were placed 300 eggs taken fromthe test traps. The mesh size of the vivierswas small enough (0.5 cm) to prevent theseichons (hatchlings) from escaping.

The experiment was initiated on 14 June,and, from that day onwards, thehatchlings were released every two days.The experiment was terminated on 18July, by which time all the eggs placed inthe viviers had hatched.

From the first days onwards, theexperiment released 30 to 40 hatchlings.After the end of June, the numberdeclined. It is important to note that theincubation time for the eggs depends onthe water temperature, and, in the lagoon,this is higher than in the natural marineenvironment, where the hatching periodis slightly longer. The hatching rateachieved—95 per cent of the eggshatched—was excellent.

It is only thanks to the goodwill of a fewconcerned local fishermen, supported bythe local and regional fisheriescommittees, that these experiments wererepeated during the 2000 fishing season(March to June) on the Loctudy site.Promoting the hatching of eggs attached

to traps seems vitally important forrecruitment and, thus, for theregeneration of stocks.

Using the sites least favoured for thestorage of traps at the end of the fishingseason, and placing removable collectorsinside the traps (which are replaced oncefilled) might allow the harvesting of alarge number of eggs. Structures adaptedat low cost, to which the collectors may befixed (for example, oyster tables,structures generally used for seedingoysters) might allow us to maximize thehatching rate of the batches of cuttlefisheggs.

In the Gulf of Moribihan in South Brittany,grilled, 3 x 1 m structures, equipped withfloating cords of 30 cm (acting as eggcollectors), are immersed when the firstcuttlefish arrive (March) and collected atthe end of the hatching period (July). Thismethod avoids a larger number ofoperations.

We have promoted the above twomethods because they allow the capture ofcuttlefish, while allowing them to spawn;basically, once a cuttlefish has laid its eggson an external surface, it will no longerenter a trap, and will die soon after.

Ecology and economy—don’t they bothshare the same etymological roots?Harmonizing the two will surely provideus with the means for exploiting all fisheryresources in a sustainable and efficientmanner.

F

rance

This piece, by JoséGouyen([email protected]),a small-scale inshore estuarinefisherman from Southern Brittanyand a member of the ColectifPêche et Développement, hasbeen translated and adapted byBrian O’Riordan


Patagonian fishworkers

Back to school

The Patagonian fishworkers have recognized the value of educating and training themselves

In February 2000, artisanal fishworkersfrom Puerto Madryn, together withtheir families, started a series of

training courses for the sector. Thesecourses included resource biology,on-board and shore-based fish handling,quality control and business techniques,and using the Internet for marketing.

These courses were conducted within theframework of an agreement madebetween the Artisanal FishworkersAssociation of Puerto Madryn, theNational Patagonia Centre (CENPAT), andthe Puerto Madryn Town Council. Theeducational aspects of the project wereprepared by the Education Secretariat inthe National Ministry of Labour.

The course on resource biology lastedthree months, and classes were given in acollegiate form by researchers fromCENPAT, with the training in eachspecialist subject being provided in simplelanguage, with no deadline pressures.This allowed the sharing of knowledgebetween scientists and fishworkers;scientific knowledge and, in the case offishworkers, empirical knowledge gainedthrough experience.

This was a completely new experience forboth parties. They discovered that theclassroom and laboratory environsenabled them to, on the one hand,determine criteria that could be used toscientifically define species of commercialinterest in Patagonia and that would beincluded in a future Manual of PatagonianArtisanal Fishing. On the other hand, itenabled the fishworkers to identifycontacts for in-depth information on aparticular species.

What is more, this training has enabledfishermen to be included in technicalworking groups and has provided the

technical information required from timeto time by national researchers andadministrators.

There is an ever-increasing need togenerate information that provides a truepicture of the state of fisheries resources,to avoid overfishing.

Such information also provides the basisfor strategies and efficient managementplans that ensure the sustainability of theresources. It also helps those who livefrom artisanal fishing to recognize thevalue of adopting a code of conduct forresponsible fisheries.

These courses have set an importantprecedent for training on artisanal fishing,in a country with around 5,000 km ofcoast.

Faced with the possibility of a massivetransformation due to the industrial crisis,the fishworkers of Puerto Madryn haveinvested enormous efforts in trainingthemselves and their families. This is toenable them to participate in the debateson setting the rules of the game forartisanal fishing, such as managementand monitoring plans, and impartknowledge of laws that provide securityto those who have always lived fromartisanal fishing.

Some fishworkers have to travel 50 km toparticipate in the intensive, day-longclasses, before returning to their homes onthe coast.

Efforts rewardedBut the effort has been rewarded, as theyhave learned about biology, thedistribution of resources, about ecology,the classification of species, their anatomyand reproductive behaviour, etc. In thearea of law, they have learned about the

A

rgentina


existing national and provincialregulations, sanitation laws, etc.

The Patagonian fishworkers haverecognized the value of educating andtraining themselves, so as to be able todefend their rights, and they are proud ofhaving accepted the challenge of going toclasses.

Arg

entin

a

This piece, by Marta Piñeiro([email protected]) ofPuerto Madryn, Patagonia, wastranslated by Brian O’Riordan


Fish fair

Louma Jiggeen ñi

The forthcoming West African Fair for Artisanally Processed Fish promises to be educative and useful

Between 2 and 3 June 2001, the firstWest African Fair for ArtisanallyProcessed Fish will be held at Place

de l’Obélisque, in Dakar, Sénégal.Artisanal fish processors and traders fromseveral countries in West Africa willinteract with organizations working with,and supporting, artisanal fishingcommunities in the region. The fair willalso attract policymakers fromparticipating countries, representatives ofinternational and sub-regionalorganizations working onfisheries-related issues in the region, andorganizations and individuals workingwith fish-processing technologies.

Titled Louma Jiggeen ñi (which, in theWolof language, means “periodic marketfor women”), the fair will be inauguratedby Senegal’s Minister of Fisheries andMaritime Transport on 2 June, to befollowed immediately by a pressconference.

Among the highlights of the fair will be adisplay of processed fish products fromthe region; exhibitions anddemonstrations of improved methods offish processing, preservation and storage;and information on support services(technology, market, credit andtrade-related information) for artisanalprocessors and traders.

In West Africa, trade in such fish productsis mainly through informal networks.These dynamic and diversified networksare constrained by poor transportinfrastructure, problems at borders, andinadequate market facilities andinformation. It is to highlight these issuesthat the fair is being organized. Prior to thefair, a workshop will be held on theproblems and prospects for thedevelopment of artisanal fish trade inWest Africa. The workshop will bring

together about 50 women processors andtraders from the region.

On 1 June, the region’s policymakers willbe invited to interact with workshopparticipants to understand theperspective of women fish traders andprocessors and to highlight the initiativesbeing taken to facilitate trade in artisanallyprocessed fish products. Participants areexpected from Senegal, Gambia, GuineaConakry, Ghana, Mali, Guinea Bissau,Ivory Coast, Togo, Benin, Nigeria,Burkina Faso, Mozambique and Uganda.

Among the organizations participatingare the UN’s Food and AgricultureOrganization (FAO), the SustainableFisheries Livelihood Programme in WestAfrica (SFLP) of FAO-DFID, CommissionSous Régionale des Pêches (CSRP), WestAfrican Association for the Developmentof Regional Fisheries (WADAF), EconomicCommunity of West African States(ECOWAS) and the Institut de TechnologieAlimentaire (ITA), Senegal.

The organizers of the fair are CollectifNational des Pecheurs Artisanaux duSenegal (CNPS), the Centre de Recherchespour le Developpement des TechnologiesIntermediaires de Peche (CREDETIP) andthe International Collective in Support ofFishworkers (ICSF), with the support of theFAO-DFID Sustainable Fisheries LivelihoodProgramme (SFLP).

N

otice

For more details on the West AfricanFair for Artisanally Processed Fish,please visit http://www.icsf.net/fishfair


ICSF Website

Beyond bare bones

The ICSF Website has been continuously evolving to keep pace with thevarying collection and dissemination needs of its multilingual constituency

The ICSF Website, first set up in 1996,has been undergoing periodicupdates to reflect new content, and,

at times, better Web technologies. The firstWebsite, hosted in the UK, had onlybare-bones information on ICSF and itsprogrammes. After a couple of revisions,the site was enhanced to include onlineversions of SAMUDRA Report (in aprinter-friendly PDF format) in all threelanguages (English, Spanish and French),as well as details of all ICSF publications.

Early in its operations, ICSF had realizedthe importance of a repository ofinformation that could be used by itsglobally scattered constituency. Thiscould finally be realized in 1998, when ICSFset up its Documentation Centre atChennai, India. The Centre’s primaryobjectives were collating, organizing anddisseminating information of importanceto artisanal fisheries. The inputs to theCentre included all possible media: books,journals, newspaper articles,photographs, slides and videos.

While the Centre first attempted toclassify and organize around its ownschema, it was decided, in 2000, that itwould be better to standardize thisaround UNESCO’s documentationpackage, WinISIS. By early 2001, over 2,000references were entered into the WinISISdatabase. By now, it was clear that theInternet would be the most efficient andcost-effective manner to disseminateinformation gathered at the Centre. Thenext challenge, therefore, was to integratethe information collated at the Centre intothe ICSF Website.

There were several difficulties in thisprocess. The first had to do with thestorage format of WinISIS. WinISIS uses aproprietary format, not very conducivefor Web-enabling storage of the database.

The only export facility was to the ISOformat, which was also not easy for directuse online. The second challenge was tosynchronize the Chennai database withthe online database, since WinISIS was nota distributed database. The thirdchallenge was handling media elementssuch as images, slides and videos, as thesupport for these in WinISIS was minimal.

Another interesting challenge came up onaccount of the geographically distributedstyle of information collation. Since ICSFwanted to collect field-levelinformation—and much of this was inlocal languages such as Spanish, Frenchand Portuguese—the collection anddissemination mechanism had to bemultilingual and distributed.

Work on the new Website started inJanuary 2001. The first milestone was theporting of the ISO format into mySQL, theWeb database used for the site. This wascarried out within a month by a team ofthree people.

Once in the mySQL format, the databasewas easily searched using a Web-basedfront-end. Writing the search front-endwas the second major milestone. Thesearch had to be flexible enough to yieldall matching records, and also had toorganize the results in the order ofrelevance. The search programme waswritten in Java (using Apache’sJavaServer Page technology, Tomcat).

Advanced searchThe first beta version of the site was testedat Chennai in March 2001, and some morefine-tuning recommended. The site coulddo two kinds of searches: a two-tier,keyword-based search, and akeyword-or-author direct search. Eachitem of the search output would be givena score based on its relevance. Clicking on

Web

site


the link would take the user to a detailspage, where more details, includingabstracts, where applicable, are displayed.

In addition to the search, the site hadother enhancements as well: analphabetical list of online resources

(URLs); an events calendar; news flashes;and a mechanism for orderingpublications or documents output by thesearch process, using the familiar’shopping cart’ model.

All the earlier information at the site, suchas ICSF programmes, membership andpublications, was incorporated into thenew site as well.

The site also incorporates anAdmin(istration) interface, protected bypasswords, for managing various aspectsof the site. The Documentation Centrepersonnel can directly make changes andupdate all the dynamic portions of the sitethrough this interface.

In addition, the Admin interface makes itpossible to manage the multilingualthesaurus (the master list of keywords)that is simultaneously managed betweenIndia, France and Brazil.

The present site runs on the popular FreeSoftware OS, GNU/Linux, and is physicallylocated in the US. The Web server used isApache, with Tomcat interfacing with theJava classes that run the dynamic portion

of the site. All tools and technologies areFree Software or Open Source.

In order to evolve a uniform methodologyfor information collation in otherlanguages, ICSF’s Documentation Centreorganized a five-day workshop atChennai, from 5 to 9 March 2001.

Participants at the workshop includedrepresentatives from Brazil and France,ICSF staff from Chennai and Brussels, anexpert in WinISIS, and a member of theteam developing the ICSF Website. Thesatellite Documentation Centre fromBrazil (NUPAUB) was represented byDaniela Andrade, and from France (Pêcheet Developpement), by Cedric Pincent.

The workshop discussed the overallstrategy of ICSF’s information gatheringand disseminating operations, as well asspecific issues relating to the proposeddistributed and multilingualmethodology.

WinISIS expertWhile the French representative wasaware of WinISIS and had used it before,the Brazilian representative was new tothe programme. Prof. A. Neelameghan,the WinISIS expert and a member of theoriginal UNESCO team that developedWinISIS, explained the different aspects ofthe programme to the participants. Healso explained the existing means ofinterfacing WinISIS to the Web.

W

ebsite


The workshop decided that thedocumentation centres at India, Brazil andFrance would develop a commonthesaurus, which would be used for thekeywording of documents in therespective centres. The system ofdocumentation to be followed would bethe CCF format in WinISIS, with theaddition of two new fields to the existingdatabase, namely, language and thelocation of the document. In the case of thePortuguese and Spanish documentationcentres, the field stating the theme of thedocument would also be highlighted (forexample, whether the document relates tofisheries or not). There would be aseparate database for Spanish andPortuguese documents.

The new Website for ICSF is expected toopen up access to the resources of theDocumentation Centre to a much wideraudience. The next step in the evolution ofthe ICSF Website would be to incorporatethe three languages into the existing site(which is, at present, English-based,although several publications exist in thethree languages). This is expected to takeabout a year.

Web

site

This report has been written byRamya R ([email protected]). of ICSF’sDocumentation Centre, and SatishBabu ([email protected]) of InApp, anInternet applications and softwarecompany, based in Technopark,Trivandrum, India


Fishery co-operatives

Penny saved, penny earned

In this eighth instalment, the pioneer of Japan’s co-operative movement lauds the value of thrift and saving

The New Fishery Co-operative Lawwas enacted early in 1949, and itincluded a provision regarding the

prefectural Credit Federations of fisheryco-operatives. Soon, 206 FCAs wereestablished based on the new law, and thechairmen of all the FCAs in Hokkaidogathered in Sapporo on 15 October 1949,to discuss the re-establishment ofDogyoren (the Hokkaido Federation ofFishery Co-operative Associations) and ofShingyoren (the Hokkaido CreditFederation of Fishery Co-operativeAssociations).

It had been decided that the HokkaidoFisheries Industry Organization, whichhad been established to replace Dogyorenduring the war and of which I remainedthe managing director, was to bedissolved. Several of the FCA chairmenhad discussed the question of how theproperty and staff were to be dividedbetween Dogyoren and Shingyoren. Theytold me that, given the situation of FCAs inHokkaido, they would not be allowed toestablish an independent creditfederation. Therefore, they would start byre-establishing Dogyoren, and, after theFCAs had accumulated enough savings,they would then establish Shingyoren.

I suggested that they establish it at once,since a financing system is necessary forthe success of any business. The fishermenhad to handle their money effectively andprepare to get help through the financialservices of the Central Bank ofAgriculture, Forestry and Fisheries

Since the total amount of the savings offishermen in Hokkaido amounted to only¥400 million, they continued to waver.Therefore, I told them that it was all themore necessary to establish Shingyoren; ifthe FCA had that amount of savings, it wasstrange that there was no financial

function at the federation level, eventhough the total annual production of thefishermen reached ¥30 billion. They thendecided to establish Shingyoren alongwith Dogyoren on that date, and these twofederations have continued to exist to thepresent day.

As I had been involved in the co-operativemovement for a long time, they asked meto assume the presidency of one of the twofederations, as per my choice. I thought itstrange that they would allow me tochoose which position I would like, butthey left it entirely up to me. I chose tobecome president of Shingyoren.

Even though I had no experience in thecredit business, I believed that thefishermen would remember thedifficulties they had in the early 1930s, andthat their spirit of co-operation would liveon.

The day following my inauguration, I metwith the Board of Directors of Shingyorenand stated that, for the first fiscal year, Iwould like to work with a ¥5 milliondeficit. All the directors were, of course,surprised; so I explained that we wouldset up 10 branch offices independent ofDogyoren, at a cost of about ¥5 million.These branches, I said, would contributegreatly to promoting savings by thefishermen. In this way, we would make asacrifice by running a deficit at present, sothat we could save for futuredevelopment. We could easily wipe outthis deficit within two or three years, andthen we would continue to providefinancial services to the members of theFCAs.

Huge priceIf they rejected this plan, I warned, theywould have to wait at least five yearsbefore they could provide financial

Japan


services. The directors understood what Ihad told them, and the First Plan wasadopted.

We were able to wipe out theoriginal ¥570,000 deficit withinthe first two years, and, by the

end of the eight fiscal year, the totalsavings increased to ¥2,200 million.

I would like to tell how the FCAs managedto increase the savings so much in such ashort period. The reason wasn’t simplythat they had good harvests. Thefishermen worked very hard andstruggled to make it through the badtimes.

In 1950, for example, the squid fishermenhad an extremely badharvest, particularlyalong the Sea of Japancoast. Many fishingvillages were sufferingfinancially, so theHokkaido governmentprovided ¥30 million inrelief funding, of which¥150,000 was to beallocated to the SakazukiFCA in the centre of theShakotan Peninsula.

One day, chairman Takeiof the Sakazuki FCAasked me if we couldloan his FCA ¥30,000before they received the government loan,as they had no money to buy even the ricerationed to them by the government.Takei was afraid that the fishermen wouldnot be able to make it through the severewinter season.

I replied that we could not extend such aloan from the relief fund because his FCAhad no savings. Takei implored me,saying that they would all die if theydidn’t receive help, and promised that theloan would be paid back immediatelyafter the fishing season.

I told him that he had things to do beforethey died. I suggested that he go back tothe village and tell all the housewives tosave and keep a record of their savings toshow us. Takei replied that my suggestionwas cruel, since it was impossible to savewhen they were hungry.

I suggested that they economize first of allby cutting down on the shochu potatoliquor that all the fishermen drank, andalso to try to cut down on many otherthings in order to save money. I thenpromised him that if all the memberfishermen tried hard to save some money,no matter how small the amount, I wouldloan them some money, since they wouldhave proved their ability to helpthemselves. He asked me to visit theSajazyju FCA twice to speak to all themembers and their wives about my plan.

In my speeches, I told them howShingyoren was still small and not verypowerful, since we had only a very smallamount of capital. However, if each of the300 Sakazuki fishermen saved ¥1 per day,

the FCA would save ¥300per day, or ¥9,000 permonth. In one year, theycould save up ¥108,000,and I asked them todeposit this money intoShingyoren.

If the savings of all thefishermen throughoutHokkaido weredeposited intoShingyoren, we wouldhave not only a greatsum of money, but alsogreat credit. We wouldthen be able to extend ahelping hand to the

weaker FCAs. The members discussed thisidea among themselves, and soon beganto save.

At first, chairman Takei and the otherdirectors visited each fishermen’s house tocollect their savings, but they soondecided to let the fishermen keep savingsboxes in their houses.

These boxes would be collected everymonth and brought to the FCA. Thissystem worked very well and all the otherFCAs throughout Hokkaido eventuallybegan to use this system to increase theirmonthly savings.

Monthly savingsThese monthly savings practices werecontrolled by the women’s groups, andthe total amount reached ¥2 millionwithin seven years. By the end of 1983, the

Japa

n

I suggested that they economize

first of all by cutting down on the

shochu potato liquor that all the

fishermen drank, and also to try

to cut down on many other things

in order to save money.


total saved by these women’s groups was¥29 million.

We also developed anothersaving system in which all themoney earned from sales

passed through the FCA. The FCA deductedall commission, transportation fees andany other costs which the FCA was owedby the fishermen. The balance wasdeposited into the fishermen’s accounts inthe FCA. At the end of 1983, the totalsavings of this FCA had reached ¥440million.

These savings movements were all basedon a fundamental philosophy, which canbe summarized in the maxim “A pennysaved is a penny earned. ”

Eight years after they began to follow myadvice, the chairman and thegeneral-manager of the Sakazuki FCAcame to me and asked me to write thatslogan in large characters on a boardwhich they would hang on the wall of theFCA meeting room.

Japan

This is excerpted from theAutobiography of Takatoshi Ando,translated by Naoyuki Tao andJames Colyn


Fishing for danger

With more than 70fatalities per day,fishing at sea may bethe most dangerousoccupation in theworld, according to anew report releasedin January by the UNFood and AgricultureOrganization (FAO).

The annual death tollamong fishermen,estimated at 24,000worldwide by theInternational LabourOrganization, may beconsiderably lowerthan the true figurebecause only alimited number ofcountries keepaccurate records onoccupational fatalitiesin their fishingindustries, says thereport.

More than 97 per centof the 15 millionfishers employed in

marine capturefisheries worldwideare working onvessels that are lessthan 24 m in length,largely beyond thescope of internationalconventions andguidelines, accordingto The State of WorldFisheries andAquaculture 2000.

Where inshoreresources have beenoverexploited, fishershave to work fartheraway from shore,sometimes forextended periods,and frequently infishing craft designedfor inshore fishing ornot complying withsecurity regulations,FAO says.

Hake hate

Artisanal fishermenin Chile are callingon fishing authoritiesto increase theAntarctic queen hake(Merluccius australis)quota in the XRegion.

The artisanalfishermen said theagreement signedwith the ChileanFisheriesUndersecretariatconcerning a catchquota increase forthat species should bemodified. The quotanow is 5,900 tonnes,distributedthroughout April,May, June and July.

The controversysurrounds theextension of thefishing season to 11months, withmonthly quotas of800 tonnes.

This would meanincreasing the annualquota to 8,800 tonnes,the leader of theregion’s fishermen,Erick Vargas, told

Fish Information &Services (FIS).

According to Vargas,about 4,000fishermen, whoparticipate in thehake fishery, are

staging protests, andothers who harvestseaweed and benthicresources have joinedthem.

Undersecretariatsources said thequota shouldn’t beincreased because thesustainability of thespecies is at stake.However, thefishermen insist thatthe agreement shouldbe urgently modified.They have evencalled for aredistribution of thequota between theindustrial andartisanal sector, asproposed for thequota of commonhake in thecentral-southernregion.

Pack off!

The fishing industryin Pakistan issuffering at the handsof deep-sea trawlersand could crumble ifthe federalgovernment

continues to allowthem to operate inPakistani waters,according toMuhammad HanifKhan, chairman ofthe Pakistan SeafoodIndustriesAssociation (PSIA).

Pakistan’s Ministry ofFood and Agriculturehas reportedly askedthe government toreview deep-seafishing operationsand reduce deep-seafishing limits from 35nautical miles to 12nautical miles.

Hanif, however,thinks they should bebanned fromPakistani watersaltogether. He told apress conference thatthey could overfishPakistani’s resources,which, in turn, wouldcripple nationalfishermen, processorsand exporters,causing the loss ofmore than a millionjobs nationwide.

“If this happens, itwould be a disasterfor the local industry,

fishermen and thecountry’s seafoodexports,” he said.

Hanif explained thatdeep-sea trawlers arevery wasteful andthrow 60 to 70 percent, sometimes 90per cent, of theircatch back into thesea. It is estimated

News Round-up


that their discardedcatches amount to300,000 tonnes peryear, which, ifbrought to themarket, processedand exported, couldfetch between $500mn and $800 mn.

Hanif said Pakistanshould work toconserve its marinesector, which earns$140 mn per year andstressed that manycountries support areduction or ban ondeep-sea trawling.

Deep-sea vesselscatch more than 28mn tonnes of fisheach year, upsettingthe ecosystem, saidHanif, who blamedthem for practicallydepleting Pakistan’stuna resources.

Fish watchdog

The government ofMozambique willsign an agreement forsatellite supervisionof its rich fishingwaters with Britishfirm Racal by the endof this month, reportsLUSA, quotingFisheries MinisterCadmiel Muthemba.

The $1 mn contract,he said, aimed tolimit illegal fishing

and overfishing andto help assess andprotect the country’s

fish stocks, especiallyprized shrimp.

In 2000, fisheriesexports, one ofMozambique’s majoreconomic resources,reached 15,800tonnes, worth $109.3mn—20.2 per centmore than in 1999.

Labour chides

At the end of thismonth, the ChiloéProvince Workers’Central Union (CUT)is to announce at theWorld Forum of FishHarvesters and FishWorkers in Quebec,Canada, that certainsalmon farmingcompanies in Chiledo not respect labourregulations.

The World Forum ispresided over byChilean nationalHumberto MellaAhumada and is dueto take place from15-30 April, with theparticipation ofrepresentatives fromall over the world.

CUT president LuisSandoval will give alecture on 18 Apriland, then, with thesupport of severalworldwide artisanalfishermen’sfederations, he willput the accusationagainst the Chileansalmon industrybefore the CanadianState, writes ElLlanquihue.

According to thefishing leader, someChilean companiesdo not respect labourregulations. Otherirregularities includea lack of respect for

maternity rights, lowsalaries, lack ofsecurity on floatingcages, lack of basicservices andanti-union practices,he said.

Sandoval believesCanada will considerthe petition becauseChile and Canadahave a free tradeagreement in forceand because Canadais such an advancedsalmon farmingcountry.

The CUT will alsodenounce the ChileanState’s subsidypolicy, alleging thatcompanies from thezones of Chiloé,Palerna and the XIRegion receive a 17.3per cent subsidy tohire staff.

However, themanaging director ofthe Association ofSalmon and TroutFarmers, RodrigoInfante, claimed thatsalmon industrialistswere always willingto discuss such issueswith both workersand governmentauthorities.

The Chilean salmonindustry employsmore than 24,800people and generatesmore than 12,000indirect jobs.

Most of the sector’sproblems affect thesalmon farmingcentres andprocessing plants.Following itsspectacular growth,the salmon industryaccounts for half ofthe Chilean fishingsector’s exports and

five per cent of thecountry’s totalexports.

No to WTO

The World Forum ofFisher Peoples (WFFP)Co-ordinationCommittee met inMumbai, India from6 to 10 March 2001and decided to go foran internationalfisheries strike on 21November 2001. Italso decided tosupport the anti-WTOaction in Quatar from5-13 November 2001.

The CoordinationCommittee decidedto reject any kind offactory fishing andalso joint ventures inthe name oftechnology transfer.It also decided to

reject industrialmonocultureaquaculture andgenetic manipulation.WFFP says it will nottolerate any dumpingof atomic andindustrial wastes inoceans and waterbodies. WFFP acceptstourism only to theextent that it isdecided upontogether with thelocal fishingcommunity and onlywhen it is inconsonance with theneeds and livelihoodof the local fishingcommunity.


'lIirougli a mutuafanaprivate arrangement,you agreetf to seU to me on credit.'l1tere was no witness.'lIirougli a mutuafanaprivau arrangement,you provilfe!me a foan.'I1iere were no inaiscreet ears.'Toaay, in tlie mitflfe of tlie marR#t,you yeff in a liigli ana foua voke'Iliat I'm an insofvent aeEtar.you yeffliigli ani foua'Iliat Cliirie is in aeEt.'But aeEt is not tlieft,I wi!fpay'Iou.OWing'Iou is not steafingfromyou.I wif[pay'Iou,I wi!fpay'Iou one aay.

- Song sung by women fishwholesalers from Benin

,

ICSf is an Internalional NGO

~ on issues Ilat ClJI'lCl!l'nlisl'Iworkers !he WOI1d OYer. nisil statuswilli It1e Eoonomic andSocial Coord of tie UN and ison LO'S Special Us! of Nor\Governmental Inlemalional Organizations. It also has LiaisonStatus with FAa. Regislered inGenew. ICSF has offices InChennai. India and Brussels.BeIgil.m. As a~ network ofcommunity organizers.leachers, I,cllnicians, r~

sean:hefs M:l sdentIsls, ICSF"'5aaMlies ellcorr~ 1TIllI'lItlrlflQ and research, e~change

and training, C8mpallTlS andaction, as well as commlJl'llCa'tiof\s.$AlolUDl'.A ~EPORT invitescontributions and responses.Correspondence should be addressed to lhe CheMai office.

The opnons and posibMsexpressed i'l !he artides aretIose oIltle aulh:lrs c:cn:emedand do noc necessariy represent the oIIidaI views of ICSf

SAI.llllRA AEPORT can now be accessed on lCSf'S home page onthe World Wide Web athtlp:l/www.icsf.net

• •

Publistled by$ebastlan Ma\tlew lor

htemabonal CoIediYe ... Suppott 01 FishworkersTI CoIege Road. Chemai &XllDi, Irda

TelephMe (91) 44-827 SXl3 FlICSriI (91)~ 4457E-mail: IcsIOvsrU:om

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Edited bySMI.IIIA EIiIonaI

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eo,,,PUlling on papyrus:

Temple of HatshepsUl (1478-1458 Be)

Photographs courtesy 01M. Larkin. Brian O'Riordan. Sebastian Mathew,lnal Feidl

Comeh Quist. AmeIla Garcia eartlJaya, Jose Gouyen, Yuchira Harada

Additional news courtesy off,l(l, FISh InIoImaIJCl'l &5eM:::esB_....

Printed 11Nagmjand~ny PYt.lld., ChemaI

SAIIUDRA REPORT No. 28 ApI'il2001FOR UMlTEtl CIFICl.lJ,TlOH OM.Y

world dei,,,,, · in the fisheries sector, depending on the ’public objective’, subsidies would...

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